spacetoday.net: ORBIMAGE to buy Space Imaging

Posted: Fri, Sep 16, 2005, 1:53 PM ET (1753 GMT)
OrbView-5 illustration (ORBIMAGE)

ORBIMAGE, a commercial satellite remote sensing company, announced Friday that it planned to acquire one of its rivals, Space Imaging. ORBIMAGE announced that it would acquire "substantially all" of the assets of Space Imaging for $58.5 million less payments on existing Space Imaging debt. ORBIMAGE believes the deal with receive regulatory approval and close by the end of the calendar year. ORBIMAGE and Space Imaging, along with DigitalGlobe, have battled for the smaller-than-expected market for high-resolution satellite imagery for several years; all three have relied in part on government contracts to support their businesses. ORBIMAGE and Space Imaging each operate one existing high-resolution satellite, while ORBIMAGE is developing a new one, OrbView 5, scheduled for launch in 2007. The development of OrbView 5 is supported by a contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA); ORBIMAGE beat out Space Imaging for the contract one year ago. Space Imaging had been reportedly up for sale for several months, and the deal with ORBIMAGE was first reported earlier this week by the Denver Rocky Mountain News.