June 4 (Reuters) – European satellite company SES A.S. is set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval for its $3.1 billion bid for rival Intelsat, people familiar with the matter said, creating a major European player to rival Elon Musk’s Space X-owned Starlink.
The European Commission, which is scheduled to decide on the deal by June 10, and SES declined to comment. The acquisition comes as the European Union ramps up its drive for strategic autonomy in this area to reduce its dependence on U.S. companies.
The deal, which secured unconditional clearance from the UK competition authority last week, is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice.
In my opinion the key antitrust / competition review is by the US’ Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice. With Musk no longer seemingly close to the US administration I wonder if it has a better chance of approval, or approval without conditions, given keeping SES and Intelsat as smaller competitors would have presumably been in Starlink’s interests.
Hopefully we won’t have too much longer to wait for a decision, although I note from the FCC docket that they are well beyond their 180 review period already…
https://www.fcc.gov/transaction/ses-Intelsat
Reuters confirms that the EU has unconditionally cleared SES’s $3.1b bid for Intelsat…
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/eu-unconditionally-clears-sess-31-bln-bid-intelsat-2025-06-10/ 10/