The Firm represented Iridium Holdings LLC (“Iridium”), a leading provider of mobile satellite communications services, in connection with a public offering of 16,000,000 shares common stock by its parent company, GHL Acquisition Corp. (“GHL Acquisition”). The net proceeds of the offering were approximately $149 million. Raymond James, RBC Capital Markets and Stifel Nicolaus acted as joint book-running managers.
The Firm also represented Iridium in its acquisition by GHL Acquisition, which was originally announced in September 2008. On September 29, 2009, the acquisition and the equity offering closed. GHL Acquisition was renamed “Iridium Communications Inc.” and is now listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “IRDM”.
Iridium, with 66 satellites in low-earth orbit, is the only provider of mobile satellite communications services offering 100% global coverage.
The Simpson Thacher team for the transaction included Ken Wallach, former associate Carlos Amy, Maria Rocha Barros and Samantha Braunstein (Capital Markets); Edward Chung, Ann Walker, Tom Lamprecht and Ralph Eissler (M&A); Sean Austin and Aaron Cohen (Tax); Tristan Brown and Victoria Stewart (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits); Lori Lesser and Bill Ferullo (Intellectual Property); and Mike Isby (Environmental). Paralegal Matthew Dresher provided valuable assistance.