Iridium Shareholders Said Yes to Rocket Lab. The Stock Is Still $5 Short of the Deal Price.
Iridium stockholders approved Rocket Lab's $54-a-share acquisition on September 24, 2026. What the collar does, why the FCC is the last gate, and why Iridium still trades about 10 percent below the deal price.
Iridium Shareholders Said Yes to Rocket Lab. The Stock Is Still $5 Short of the Deal Price.
The vote on September 24 removed the easy condition. What remains is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), nine months of calendar, a competitor’s filing in the docket, and a collar that makes Iridium holders part-owners of a rocket company whether they wanted to be or not.
99.6%
Of votes cast in favor on September 24, representing about 81 percent of Iridium’s outstanding shares
$54.00
Notional value per Iridium share: $27.00 in cash plus $27.00 in Rocket Lab stock inside the collar
~$8.0B
Enterprise value at announcement on June 29, 2026, including Iridium’s $1.775 billion term loan
Mid-2027
Expected close, with the FCC’s consent to transfer Iridium’s licenses the one gate still open
On September 24, 2026, Iridium Communications (IRDM) stockholders approved the company’s acquisition by Rocket Lab (RKLB), with approximately 99.6 percent of votes cast in favor, representing approximately 81.0 percent of Iridium’s outstanding shares. Each Iridium share will receive $27.00 in cash plus Rocket Lab common stock under an exchange ratio subject to a collar, a package with a notional value of $54.00 for each Iridium share.
Is the Rocket Lab acquisition of Iridium done?
Not yet, and the market is pricing the wait. The transaction was announced on June 29, 2026 at an enterprise value of about $8.0 billion, cleared United States antitrust review when the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) waiting period expired on August 12, and is expected to close by mid-2027 once the remaining regulatory approvals, principally the FCC’s consent to transfer Iridium’s licenses, are in hand. Iridium closed at $48.33 on September 28, about 11 percent below the $54.00 notional value.
What follows works through what the vote did and did not settle, the two numbers that describe the price, the collar that decides whether $54.00 is a fixed value or a variable one, why the spread is as wide as it is with two of three gates already passed, what Rocket Lab is actually buying, and what the deal says about who is buying whom in this industry now.
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- 02What the shareholders approved
- 03How much Rocket Lab is paying
- 04How the collar works
- 05Why Iridium trades below $54
- 06What Rocket Lab actually gets
- 07Globalstar, Viasat and SpaceX
- 08What to watch, and where I come out
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