Anpanman - The $10 Billion Space Race: Amazon, Globalstar, and the Future of AST SpaceMobile

[00:00:06] Speaker A: This is the AST SpaceMobile Podcast. It will just basically come to your phone and be seamless regardless of where you are. We don't want the user even to know that it's connected by satellite. Listen, the opportunity that we have is very, very, very large.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Hey everyone, thanks for joining. We got some big news today and, uh, apologize in advance. I'm, I've become sick again. So, um, my head is a bit cloudy, but, uh, I figured fire up Space and talk about this deal that was long rumored and it's finally come to fruition. So, uh, Amazon just announced that they're buying Globalstar for $90 in cash and stock. It's going to be an election for shareholders and there's a limit to how much stock gets paid out. But it looks like the transaction's probably going to close in 2027. My guess is that the regulatory review is going to be pretty long, at a minimum, maybe 9 months. And so this deal's going to trade for a reasonably wide spread, I think, unless people think there's a chance that SpaceX comes back and tries to, you know, post going public, maybe tries to top this deal. But That would seem kind of like a fool's errand because you're going up against Amazon. So I don't really see that happening, but it's possible. So I think this thing's going to trade pretty wide because the regulatory review will be pretty long and that will require obviously FCC and I'm guessing the DOJ is probably going to review this from an antitrust point of view, but it should get cleared. And yeah, so pretty interesting deal. I mean, I think For all the bears out there who talk about this market being too small, now you've got SpaceX spending $23 billion on spectrum and Amazon shelling out well over $10 billion for Globalstar, which is a legacy satellite company. The key assets here obviously are the global harmonized spectrum. And if you look at the press release, Amazon is planning to, in partnership with Apple, because for some background, Globalstar is a bit of an albatross for Apple given the ambitions that Apple wanted for their satellite service. And then of course Starlink and AST surpassing what Globalstar can do now or for the medium to long term as well. And so by Amazon coming in, with capital and know-how on the Leo side, they're going to be able to put together a better service. And so for Apple, that solves their issue there. Obviously it's a bit of an odd marriage because I think for Apple, they are competitors with Amazon in various areas for consumer business. And eventually, you know, there's some talk about Amazon coming back to the phone handset market and developing an AI device as well. And so those 2 will maybe increasingly come into conflict, but at least for this particular business, they seem to have worked out something, which I think the information, maybe it was like 2 years ago and a year ago, the articles suggested that Apple kind of viewed Globalstar as something that was not sustainable because it wasn't a core focus for them. And then, you know, obviously the relationship there was not optimal. And so perhaps this can change that dynamic or maybe not. But, you know, today Amazon did announce that they are going to enter into the direct-to-device market. And as I said before, for those people who poo-pooed this market and said it was too small, now you've got SpaceX and Amazon going headfirst. Of course, you know, Apple making sure that their devices are compatible. But yeah, this market is huge and it's probably going to be bigger in terms of TAM than people think. So this is a huge vote of confidence for this market. And yeah, I think overall that's quite bullish for what will be the leaders in the market, which I think ultimately are going to be AST SpaceMobile, Starlink, and then we'll see where Amazon falls on that, just being, you a late player, but very powerful player. I think it's important to note that spectrum value has been underscored here. And for those that know, AST SpaceMobile owns Legato for 80 years. So the life of that lease is going to be longer than I'm alive. But in terms of value extraction, they're going to get a ton of economics from that. And so by having Legato covering the US, which is the most profitable market, and Canada, there's tremendous value there. If you do some of the parts analysis, I would peg Legato's value at probably, call it once it's fully deployed, let's say it's $20 billion. And as people know, AST SpaceMobile satellites are the only ones that can utilize that spectrum. Effectively on a non-interference basis, which has plagued Legato in the past. And so taking that $20 billion, that's a pretty hefty piece of AST's value today. And the rest of the businesses is option value. So you get the commercial business and then you also, of course, you get the defense business as well. So I think today just really underscores the value of spectrum and how Smart management was in closing the Legato transaction and also getting MSS spectrum rights globally. And so, yeah, that's that's just a big underscore value there. But anyway, going back to Amazon Global Star, it does look like you know Amazon's going to continue in fulfilling the or paying for the the the replenishment of the current Global Star constellation. So that that's a mild positive for MDA space. However, if you look at this press release, you look a little bit closer, it looks like Amazon's going to develop their own direct-to-device satellite, which will then kick in after that replenishment cycle. And so they're saying that they're going to try to launch sometime in 2028. And as we all know in space, that's probably going to be maybe 1 to 2 years later than they expect. If you look at the development timeline for Amazon LEO, the fixed Broadband satellites. But if they can get there in 2028, you know, that by that time, the AC Mobile service and Starlink's service, I guess their next generation satellites will start rolling out then. That's what they'll have to contend with. But the model here will be interesting because I think Amazon, you know, if you're taking a very, you know, if you take a step back and think about announcing this transaction, they probably had to, obviously they worked closely with Apple to kind of iron out how that relationship would work. And so obviously, you know, Amazon's going to continue to support Apple devices and then the current constellation, but eventually that constellation will get phased out. And then they talk about potentially working with MNOs and other partners. And so I could see a world where Amazon will offer an IoT network, which you'll have any number of customers interested in that as IoT will be a big market for everybody. But then when it comes to MNO partners, I'm not sure who they would work with. I think if it's T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T, those folks would be leery in working with Amazon, just given that Amazon again is you know, with their LEO services can be competitive with home broadband, whether that's fiber or 5G home. And then of course, MNOs, I think would be cognizant of the fact that Amazon might have larger ambitions to try to compete on the wireless side, terrestrially, right? But of course, you know, it's hard to do that because you would need terrestrial spectrum. And so perhaps Amazon could enter into an MVNO type relationship. But yeah, all this stuff, there's a lot to unpack here, so I'm not really sure which MNOs might work with them. But then, you know, you also have to look outside the US. And so if the US market is locked up, Amazon does have, does sell products and competes in a number of international markets. And so they could find openings elsewhere to work with MNOs. And so, I mean, it is Amazon and, you know, I'm sure you could find MNO partners that would not be or not feel threatened by Amazon and to work with them. But that's something that they'll have to figure out. That said, it does make sense for Amazon to come in and acquire the company and buy what is essentially Harmonay spectrum globally. So that's a positive, right? No one ever— well, if you have a timeframe of, it's just like home ownership, right? Like if you buy a home and you're looking to flip it in a year or two, you may not, you know, you always have to worry about whether you're buying the top or the bottom, but if you have a time horizon of 5 years or longer, it doesn't matter where you buy a home in terms of price. Eventually in good markets like that, you will make money. And so for Amazon buying Spectrum as a strategic asset makes a ton of sense. I mean, for Amazon, the optionality is that they can build satellites and try to launch a service, you know, hopefully cobble together some partners, or if they decide to not build satellites, then they could have someone else light up the spectrum, whether that's AST or somebody else, right? And so I think for Amazon, it's a smart deal because I think for acquiring spectrum rights and having a relationship with Apple is good. And so for them, the transaction Makes sense, and then for Apple, at the end of the day, like Apple, all they care about is selling more phones, right? And so they're not looking to get into the service provider business, which clearly, if they were, they would have done this deal themselves. But for them, it's the key thing is is selling as many phones as possible and offering features that are unique. And so they're hoping that Amazon can give them something unique in 2028 and beyond. I think the key thing though is as Space Mob has followed. Hiring at Amazon, I think they just started looking for direct-to-device people. And so it's going to take time for them to actually develop a working satellite in this area. And then if they're smart, they'll go to first principles and try to develop something similar to what AST has, right? As opposed to going down the route that SpaceX took, which is slap something together quickly to get service out and then hopefully change it over time. But yeah, this is an interesting deal. I think for a bear, they might be like, well, Amazon's now a competitor of yours. And so that's going to be, that could crimp your growth or reduce the size of your TAM. I would argue that this validates the TAM and just shows how large the opportunity is. It's not just mobile phones, it's IoT devices. And we're just talking about commercial. For AST, like you've got the commercial business and you also have the defense business. And so it's very, here you're seeing a huge validation. And, you know, I think the key thing is that from a competitive standpoint, now you've got SpaceX and Starlink and xAI and Tesla. So that's all like one vertical stack. And now you've got Amazon. And of course Amazon is leveraging Blue Origin. And so, and then Apple is friendly in some degree, at least, you know, they're supportive. And then you've got these other players too, these other players called, you know, OpenAI, Google, Meta. I mean, Google and Meta are already working with AST. And so what do those guys do? Right. And so I've seen this like in tech where when you have an industry that's highly attractive with great growth prospects and profitability, then you've got large players that come in and consolidation happens. When you have a leading technological player that's independent and then you've got a number of players who haven't made their moves yet, then that player that's left standing, the one-of-one company becomes that much more strategically critical, right? And so in cases you might have a situation where that company gets bought or gets strategic investment or gets strategically aligned with these other companies. I think it's probably too early for that for AST because I think, I don't think Abel's selling. And someone had, I guess an institution had mentioned to me that he was pretty sure Amazon tried to acquire AST. And I have no way to validate that or whatever, but I just don't see Abel selling. And I think the strategic value for AST in terms of value creation is is staying independent, right? Because I think the MNOs, they see encroachment from Starlink and now Amazon. They want to work with a player that's independent, right? That is not owned by a large tech company that is seeking to ultimately compete, right, with the MNOs, whether that's controlling the customer or selling other services. And so remaining independent in this market, I think, is going to be highly valuable. And so I think from a strategic standpoint, as I said before, we've already, I mean, Google has a strategic investment in AST. We know that Meta is working with AST. Now all of a sudden this chess piece, this move happened today, the strategic value of AST goes up, right? And I think for Iridium too, their spectrum is valuable. It's not paired spectrum, it's just a single Swath has spectrum in the L-band, but eventually that company, that spectrum, as, as Cathie says, like we'll find the optimal use, right? And so I think Iridium over the long run, and Matt Desch has talked about this, I think they will either lease that spectrum to another player, like a majority of it. They don't, for Iridium, they actually only need just a small part of it to operate their business, but they might lease it to someone or they might eventually get consolidated. I don't know when that would happen. And the other thing to keep in mind is when you go through these regulatory reviews with the DOJ, FCC, like they're going to look for anti-competitive behavior or, you know, how the market structure changes, which is why I don't think SpaceX would've been allowed to buy Globalstar. Whereas Amazon, because it's more nascent in its development of the LEO service, and then they don't really have anything around direct-to-device. I think it makes sense where this transaction will get allowed. But going back to that, I think for Amazon, the need to have direct-to-device, I think, is important, right? And so whether they do that independently, utilizing the spectrum, then they put up their own satellites, which makes sense, right? Like if you have satellite, development and production capacity, then eventually once you get to constellation up, you want to put that capacity towards other productive uses. And so it makes sense for them to try to put up a direct-to-device constellation. Similarly for AST, right? Like once they're done with block 1, sorry, block 2 and block 3, then they're going to put up a government shell, right? And so eventually, because they have that know-how and capacity, That eventually is going to happen. So I think for, yeah, I mean, I think the market for the people who haven't followed this market closely, the initial reaction might be negative where they'd say, oh, well, this is another competitor to AST. And so maybe their opportunity set goes down. But I would argue that let's kind of line up the strategic aspects for AST, right? Like, so they've got 45 megahertz of L-band spectrum that they own for 80 years in North America. So the US and Canada. So that's what, 20, let's just say $20 billion out of $38 billion in enterprise value. So pretty big value there. And then they're working with 50 MNOs globally. They've got Verizon and AT&T locked up in the US for some period of time, right? I mean, eventually, let's say the competitive risk is that Amazon comes to market with something that's really good. And if either of those players decides that they, you know, Amazon is worth working with, then perhaps maybe Amazon can take one of those. But at least in the near term, that's not on the table. And of course it's for AST to lose. And then, you know, you've got the military business, right? Which is, you know, the 10 different use cases around electronic warfare, jamming, sensing, you know, communications, of course. And then you've got the FirstNet business. And so there's a lot going for AST. And I think what this does for the The market narrative is that, you know, probably one of the biggest things I think for hedge funds and institutions was always going to be, you know, is this market big enough and is it economically attractive? I think the fact that you've got, you know, SpaceX that's come into the market and then you've got Amazon thinking it's big enough where they're going to go buy Globalstar. I can't see a bigger validation of how large this market is and the potential of it.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: And so I think balancing the fact that, that of course this does add some competitive uncertainty, it also raises the value of what AST is doing as an independent player, right? Because once Globalstar, once the Globalstar transaction closes and it's now obviously part of Amazon, Like, does Google go to Globalstar or does Meta go to Globalstar and say, hey, I want to use your service? No, they don't. There's no way they're going to do that, right? Or are they going to go to Meta? Like, is OpenAI or Meta or Google or any number of other players going to go to SpaceX and say, hey, I want to use your network? No. And so if anything, this heightens the strategic value of the company and whether that's like these large tech players, I didn't even talk about Microsoft, but whether it's these large tech players versus, or it could be MNOs. I mean, what MNOs are going to go to Amazon and say, hey, I want to work with you and, but you keep the customer, you control the customer information. I'll give it all to you. And by the way, like you're going to be competing with my my fiber and 5G home business. That's not something, well, that's not the choice that AT&T and Verizon made when comparing AST to Starlink. And so I would assume that they're going to make that same decision when comparing AST to eventually what will come to market for Amazon, which again is maybe 2028, 2029. But yeah, no, it's interesting. And I think if anything, this is going to get additional people interested in this market and bring more attention. And so now it's like, okay, well now we've got Starlink and they're, you know, for those that missed it, I posted, let me just pull it up here. The Information had an article. I assume that they got a look at the confidential S-1 That will be public eventually, you know, breaking down Starlink's numbers. And so it was quite staggering. Starlink generated $11.4 billion of revenue and launch SpaceX generated $4.1 billion of revenue. However, in terms of profitability, Starlink was $7.2 billion versus $700 million for SpaceX launch. And so the profits are here. And Amazon clearly is voting with their feet saying, well, we need to go pursue some of that profit pie as well. Like fixed wireless is great, but in terms of the numbers and the growth, you know, it's all on direct-to-device. And again, it's not just mobile phones. You've got to think more broadly. It's going to be drones, robots, vehicles, anything. that you can put a device on, right? And so tractors, I mean, there's a whole host of things like in terms of connected devices, IoT already is a magnitude bigger than the mobile subscribers around the world, right? And that's just going to continue to increase. And so you've got to think outside of the box. It's not just mobile phones. It's going to be much broader than that. And so for Amazon, it makes a ton of sense because they're not just in the business of selling wireless or eventually selling data to your home. They want to have all these different devices and enable, in order to integrate that and create their own network, it just makes a ton of sense. That said, there are some regulatory things that Amazon will have to get around. I think for Their, their, um, the N53, the, the 11 gigahertz, 11 megahertz of spectrum for private networks. Um, I think, you know, they can use that terrestrially and it's, it's part of their spectrum allocation. I mean, it's either use it for MSS or use it for terrestrial use. Um, there are power limitations to that. And so, um, you know, whether maybe there is a case where Amazon could sell routers to homes and then, you know, they could utilize this Amazon-only spectrum and provide better service in your home. Like that's one potential synergy there. But yeah, it's, I don't know, there's a lot to unpack here. And so I've got to think about it a bit more, but I think the key takeaway is that, you know, this is a deal that makes sense for Amazon and for them not to be involved in this market, that doesn't make much sense. And so it was something that was almost too good for them to pass up. And I think for AST, this highlights the strategic value of the company, its spectrum assets, its 50 MNO partners around the world, and of course military and defense use cases. And then of course FirstNet, and as the only independent player They left, um, you know, again, does that highlight, that heightens the value to a Meta or Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, you know, any number of companies, right? Um, and this also validates the, the direct-to-device market, which is bigger than cell phones. It's going to be, um, Internet of Things as well. Um, but yeah, those are some of my initial thoughts. I'm going to look at comments here. Let me just look here. Some people may have asked some questions, but let me just look here. And by the way, like some of these carriers, these MNOs, they might decide to not work exclusively, exclusively. Like they might actually engage with one or more providers to provide different pieces. Although I think network integration, if you do that, is going to be a nightmare, but that is always a possibility as well. Um, someone asked, did I hear Catsy in the background? Uh, yes, you did. Actually, we have a cat, and so it was meowing. That wasn't Catsy, it's actually our cat here. Um, let's see. Satellite connectivity rewards capital and speed. SpaceX proved it. Amazon entering tightens the squeeze on smaller players like ASTS. Uh, that's true. It does add competitive juice to, um, the landscape. And so AST's got to move quickly, which is why they raised $4 billion. And they're working with key strategic players, including AT&T, Verizon, Saudi Telecom, Vodafone, Google, Meta, I mean, you name it, right? So yes, that's true. Let's see. Comes back to executing, which means more satellites faster in orbit, scaling revenue. know, helpful to bring more coverage to the industry. Yeah, I mean, for those that, um, I, I guess actually I, I'll provide a little bit of an update. So, um, as I've mentioned in Spaces before, AST, some of the delays around Block 2 is around the stacking issue. And so these new composite rings, there's a lot of investment upfront that goes into them and it's hard to do. Um, but then once you do it, the weight savings and structural rigidity, um, is worth it, right? And so AST did encounter Some issues with their rings initially, but they solved that back in February, and the first batch is going to be done and shipped this month. And there was some speculation on Twitter about this Antonov flying into Midland yesterday, and I can confirm that, and Midland Spaceport confirmed this, that that flight was for ASD Space Mobile. We do know that they use a a manufacturer of composites in India. And so that's where the plane came from. And that flight actually dropped off the next generation or this improved ring design for Bluebird 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. I think we're speculating anywhere between 6 to 8 rings were dropped off yesterday. And so once the first 2 batches, which is 8, 9, 10, and 11, 12, 13, are done and out the door. Um, the, the other rings have been dropped off and will be integrated with their— the set of microns, uh, and other pieces of, of payload, um, which then of course will be, you know, tested and delivered. So that will be, uh, the rings that were delivered yesterday will be batch— will be batch, um, I guess 3 and 4. 3 and 4. And maybe 5. We're not really sure how many rings were delivered, but there was, there was more than we had expected. I'll just put it at that. But let me see here. But yeah, that's, that's a quick update there. Oh, there's a few more questions.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: All right.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: I don't know if people have questions. Happy to talk here. Let's see. With your M&A experience, have you seen companies like AST acquired on future revenue rather than current valuation? Yes, that's typical for M&A. You don't buy a company for its current prospects. You buy it for the future. Is AST even acquirable at the current stage due to their high valuation with the current financials? Yeah, it is acquirable, but I don't, I don't think the company is selling, right? Like Abel is the controlling shareholder and he sees value in seeing this further in terms of development. And so I don't think he's an early seller. I guess for this question of whether companies at this stage, in the early stage but high opportunity, would they be acquired? I mean, just look at biotech, right? Biotech, you've got companies that have gone through phase 2 or phase 3 trials, not even revenue and they get acquired for billions of dollars just given on the potential. And you also see that in tech as well. Let's see. What are your thoughts on the timing of this while our satellite is literally sitting on top of their rocket on launchpad? I think the timing is coincidence. Blue Origin is separate from Amazon, although they are of course related. I don't, think this, the timing of this deal was aligned with, with, uh, our launch. Um, but if it was, then that, that's interesting in and of itself. Uh, let's see. If Amazon entered this market in 2028 without adding any M&Os, what could they realistically do with what they bought today? Um, well, I mean, they can sell, you know, if someone from, if someone buys an Apple iPhone or device and they're offered Amazon service, satellite service, and they could pay some monthly subscription for that. Or Amazon, I guess like Amazon maybe kind of taking it forward, Amazon could offer it as a service via if you're a Prime customer. But you have to remember like that network is only available outside of an MNO's terrestrial coverage, right? And so I guess Amazon could provide some type of roaming network, so that's possible. But then I don't know if AT&T or Verizon would be okay with enabling that, although I guess Apple would be selling it, which is kind of an odd thing, right? Like Apple, maybe it's branded by Apple, but they're just reselling Amazon's service. Because I don't think Apple would be comfortable selling You know, they're a customer to Amazon. But yeah, this is like the complexity of it all, right? Because I think here you've got imperfect partners in bed. You've got Amazon and Apple. Like, how do they, if any issues come up in the future, how do they resolve them? Which inevitably there will be, just given that they are competitors. So does that, you know, what are Apple's rights? I gotta look at the deal documents when they come out eventually. But what are Apple's rights in all this, right? Like they, Do they still own 85% of the network, or did they relinquish some of that in exchange for some long-term service agreement? And if so, what rights does Apple have if Amazon doesn't deliver? And by the way, I think I mentioned this before, but I think for— let me just see where it's trading. I think this is a pretty net negative for MDA Space. I mean, MDA Space is trading at I guess it's last traded at $32.98. I think for, I mean, we'll see what Globalstar says, but if Amazon is going to develop the next generation satellite, then Globalstar, the Aurora satellite platform just lost one of its biggest customers, right? Which is Globalstar. And they originally were trying to sell to EchoStar. They lost that customer. So I don't know who's buying, who will buy the Aurora satellite. Um, I might even look at shorting some MBA today, but anyway, um, let's see. Why has AST been so silent on news lately? Um, I think once we have a successful static fire of Blue Origin New Glenn 3, then I think you'll see AST send out, um, an email and post about when the launch is going to be. But I think, um, smartly, it would be, it would be foolish to, you know, send, say we're launching on April 17th. And we've seen how many days this thing has been pushed back due to some delays on the Blue Origin side, but it would be silly to send out invites and get people all jazzed up about a launch date. And then the static fire, maybe it's unsuccessful or they've got to do it again some other time. You just wouldn't waste people's time and efforts until you're absolutely sure that The static fire went off without a hitch. And by the way, like they, the, the, the FM2 Bluebird 7 payload is on top of the rocket. It's not a dummy payload. And so the reason why they're doing that is they're looking to have a quick turnaround time. Obviously they're doing static fire today and then they're going to launch the sucker in 3 days. And so you wait, you wait for the static fire to be successful before announcing that you're going to—
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Have a launch date. Let's see, um, do you think this leads to an arms race to acquire AST among the remaining Mag 7 in the coming quarters? Um, I think it certainly raises strategic conversations. And you know, if Abel's initial conversations with players to work in partnership, I'm sure, you know, there might be phones ringing. Um, the bankers might be getting calls in the next few, few quarter weeks, quarters about working together either you know, strategic investment or potential acquisition. But, um, again, I, I don't think Bell's a seller. Uh, let's see. AST going to be crushed? Um, no, it's not. And if anything, as I said before, this validates the market, uh, increases strategic importance of AST. Um, because I, I think it's important, like, MNOs, when they see this deal get announced, they're not, they're not like excited about it. They're not you know, getting off their seat saying this is wonderful. They're probably very worried, right? Because now Amazon is coming into the market and, you know, Apple eventually is going to have a better service. And so that's going to give, you know, them pause and that increases the importance of AST being successful, right? And working with them. So Um, and again, I did mention the value of the spectrum that AST holds, which is Legato. Um, if there was any doubts about it previously, um, this just underscores that value, right? And we've seen interestingly Viasat who, um, you know, Legato owns, owns a spectrum with, or leases a spectrum from Viasat and Viasat has been doing everything legally possible to try to rescind the deal. And they've been slapped down by the courts. They clearly know that Legato has tremendous value and they've been trying to unwind that deal, which obviously they can't. Let's see. Is Amazon now a space play? It is to a degree. Amazon of course has LEO and then they're going to try to enter into this market as well. But when you buy Amazon, it's a massive conglomerate, right? You've got obviously E-commerce side, you've got production and video content, then you've got AWS. And so space is a small part of it, but it will become an increasing part of it. And so if that's something that you're interested in owning a conglomerate, then Amazon is partially a space play. Let's see, 2030 is when Amazon will have something. If you look at the timelines of Amazon executing around Leo, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes them additional years. I mean, doing this stuff obviously is not easy, but they've got smart engineers. Although based off of Space Mob due diligence and some of the articles you can read out there, it looks like they're having issues with their current Leo satellites and perhaps this current generation will need to be retired and a new generation put up. But of course they need to put up satellites, right? Because they've got to meet deployment deadlines set by the FCC. Otherwise, they lose their license for the constellation. And so they've got to balance that all out. Let's see. Anyway, those are the comments I had, but yeah, or those are the comments that I'm responding to. But yeah, thanks for joining. I think, yeah, this is an interesting transaction. I think it's going to bring more interest and attention to the sector, especially if anything, I think the companies wanted to announce this deal before SpaceX goes public. And so yeah, space as a sector is growing up, right? And the amount, the potential and the amount of institutional dollars that are going to be coming to the sector, I think is going to be great. And this deal just highlights the value of the direct advice market and the value of spectrum, which ASD has both. So anyway, thanks for joining. And, you know, as this transaction moves along and I do more research, I'll probably do another follow-up space. But in the meantime, hope everyone's doing well. Looking forward to— oh, I think the static fire for Blue Origin. I don't know how true this is, but someone in the NASA flight chat said that it's going to happen at 9:20. And so yeah, I did post a link. About it. So you can watch on YouTube. We're going to see Blue Origin New Glenn fire. I guess it's in 15 minutes. So exciting times. And then I don't think I'll be able to make the launch this Friday. I was looking, I was trying to make it. However, I got sick and so I'm taking some antibiotics, so I don't want to get other people sick, so I'll have to watch from home. But yeah, looking forward to it anyway. Thanks for joining and we'll talk again soon. Take care, everyone.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the AST SpaceMobile Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. To catch all the latest news about AST SpaceMobile, make sure to subscribe. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time. We're doing something very, very big, and I think with this technology, we can really affect a billion lives. AST SpaceMobile is the only company that has proven technology to deliver cellular mobile connectivity directly from space to the everyday smartphone. People will just basically turn on their phone and be seamless. Regardless of where you are, we don't want the user even to know that it's connected by satellite. Our role is to bring this into reality. Always important to treat the animals. Listen. Mmm, waffles.