Iridium Q3 2026 Results: Revenue Up 8% as Rocket Lab Deal Nears

Iridium Communications reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $245.7 million on Oct. 20, up 8% from a year earlier, as its pending sale to Rocket Lab moves toward a mid-2027 close. The Iridium Q3 2026 results were lifted by the company’s July purchase of Aireon, the space-based air traffic surveillance operator.

Image: A SpaceX Falcon 9 on the pad ahead of the 2017 Iridium-1 mission, which carried the first Iridium NEXT satellites. Photo: SpaceX, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

The Rocket Lab deal at a glance

• Size: Rocket Lab agreed to buy Iridium in a cash-and-stock deal that Rocket Lab valued at about $8.0 billion in enterprise value.
• Price: Iridium stockholders are to receive $27.00 in cash plus Rocket Lab shares under an exchange ratio with a collar, for a notional value of $54.00 per Iridium share.
• Start: The companies signed the agreement on June 28, 2026, and announced it the next morning.
• Approval: Iridium stockholders approved the merger on Sept. 24, 2026, with 99.6% of votes cast in favor, representing 81.4% of outstanding shares entitled to vote, according to Iridium’s latest release.
• Expected end date: Closing is expected by mid-2027, subject to remaining regulatory approvals and closing conditions.
• Impact: The deal would combine Rocket Lab’s launch and spacecraft business with Iridium’s global satellite network, which ended September with 2,696,000 billable subscribers.

Iridium Q3 2026 results by the numbers

Iridium’s earnings release laid out a quarter shaped by the Aireon purchase, which closed on July 2:

• Total revenue: $245.7 million, up 8% from $226.9 million a year earlier.
• Service revenue: $187.5 million, up 13%, and 76% of total revenue.
• Net income: $106.9 million, or $0.98 per diluted share, versus $37.1 million, or $0.35 per share, a year earlier. The jump came mainly from a $103.9 million gain tied to the Aireon acquisition.
• Operational EBITDA: $135.6 million, compared with $136.6 million in the third quarter of 2025. Iridium said $4.5 million in higher costs came from its shift to paying annual incentive compensation solely in cash.
• Subscribers: 2,696,000 billable subscribers, up 6% from 2,542,000 a year earlier, led by commercial Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Investing.com reported that the quarter beat analysts’ estimates, crediting the Aireon deal.

Where the growth came from

Commercial service revenue rose 16% to $159.9 million and made up 65% of total revenue. The biggest swing was in hosted payload and other data services, which more than doubled, up 121% to $41.4 million, because Aireon’s space-based ADS-B aircraft tracking revenue is now counted inside Iridium.

Other lines were mixed. IoT data revenue rose 4% to $48.7 million, while voice and data slipped 3% and broadband fell 9%. Equipment revenue dropped to $19.0 million from $21.5 million, and engineering and support revenue dipped to $39.2 million from $40.2 million.

The U.S. government remains Iridium’s largest single customer, accounting for 15% of service revenue. Government service revenue rose 2% to $27.6 million under the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services contract. On Sept. 11, the U.S. Space Force extended that contract through March 2027 at the same rate, and Iridium said it still expects a renewal in 2027.

Debt, dividend and what comes next

The Aireon deal added debt. Iridium ended September with $2.2 billion in gross debt, $97.9 million in cash and net leverage of 4.2 times trailing operational EBITDA. As part of the acquisition, it assumed Aireon’s $154.7 million credit facility and paid half the purchase price with a $183.4 million interest-free loan from the sellers that comes due a year after closing.

The company paid a third-quarter dividend of $0.15 per share, totaling $16.3 million, and said its board plans to raise the quarterly dividend to $0.16 starting with the fourth quarter.

“Last month’s stockholder approval for Rocket Lab’s acquisition of Iridium was an important milestone in creating a next generation space powerhouse,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch said in the release, adding that the combination will “accelerate our growth in critical space-based missions.”

Space stocks have been volatile alongside the broader tech market. For context, see The Boston Report’s coverage of the tech stock selloff that gave the Nasdaq its worst week since June, our explainer on Starship Flight 14 and Starlink V3, and the debate over Starshield limits in Ukraine.

Sources

• Iridium: Iridium Announces Third Quarter 2026 Results
• Iridium: Iridium Stockholders Approve Acquisition by Rocket Lab
• Rocket Lab: Rocket Lab to Acquire Iridium in Historic Deal
• Investing.com: Iridium beats third quarter estimates on Aireon acquisition
• Wikimedia Commons: Iridium-1 Mission (CC0)