Iridium sets Sept 24 vote on Rocket Lab merger
What happened
Iridium filed its definitive merger proxy statement (DEFM14A) confirming a special shareholder meeting on Sept 24, 2026 (8:30am ET, virtual) to vote on its acquisition by Rocket Lab. Per-share consideration is unchanged from the June 29 announcement — $27.00 cash plus 0.2400-0.4000 Rocket Lab shares per Iridium share, collared between $67.50-$112.50 RKLB price (VWAP over the 10 trading days before closing) — and the $223.62M termination fee is also unchanged (both already tracked). Newly disclosed: the merger agreement's outside "End Date" is June 28, 2027, extendable to Dec 28, 2027 if regulatory approvals are the only unmet closing condition. The $3.6bn Deutsche Bank/Wells Fargo bridge facility stands; Rocket Lab's separate $1.94bn ATM equity program (filed Aug 13) is intended to reduce the bridge draw. The proxy also flags a tax risk: if a "Continuity of Interest" equity-consideration threshold isn't met at closing, the IRS could deny tax-free reorganization treatment, making the deal fully taxable to Iridium shareholders.
Read-across for SES
Rocket Lab-Iridium is this desk's most closely tracked verticalization play — post-close, Rocket Lab inherits Iridium's USSF EMSS/GMDSS/DoD PTT contracts that SES/Intelsat General compete against, folding launch, manufacturing and constellation ops onto one balance sheet. A firm vote date starts the clock inside the newly disclosed June/Dec 2027 End Date window — the first hard evidence of how much schedule margin the deal has if regulatory approvals run long.
As the brief filed it
[AGE: 14h] Iridium filed its definitive merger proxy, setting a Sept 24 shareholder vote on the ~$8bn Rocket Lab acquisition and disclosing a June 2027 (extendable Dec 2027) outside date.