Nice pickup, @OilGasPlanning, but it actually raises more questions for me than it answers. Until I find out more, I would call it a potentially big positive for SAS.
For starters, the article is incorrect. The guy's name is MATTHEW TETLOW, not Matthew Telow. He is currently listed as the Chief Technical Officer for an off-market start-up in Adelaide named Fleet Space Technologies whose intent was to launch a constellation of nano-satellites well after us which would provide an (allegedly free) access to a narrowband carrier system for IoT. From memory one of the seed investors of Fleet was the same guy that had something to do with Elon Musk going for the SA Battery tender.
The fact that M Te(t)low is now being interviewed after a different company - Inovor Technologies, of which he is CEO - received a small amount of funding for nano-satellites and seemingly an MOU with someone out of Italy suggests the Fleet model isn't progressing as was planned. I will do some more digging and try to sort it out (input welcome).
However, Fleet Space's intended operations, while they don't impact in any way on the mobile/sms arena which houses the core of SAS' business model, DO impact on the vastly untapped and massively lucrative future narrowband IoT carriage market, which SAS' equatorial and subsequent global constellation would be able to deliver. If something has happened to Fleet and their business, my risk profile for my SAS investment would change enormously.
I will try to work out what is going on with Fleet and Mr Te(t)low, but the fact that he now - seemingly - works for a different company with no mention of Fleet, while not necessarily great for Fleet, could put the entire global IoT carriage market back on the table for SAS. Now that I read this article provided by @OilGasPlanning, it reminds me of a strange comment Meir made when questioned about a potential expansion of the equatorial constellation to a global one out to 2023. He said something like 'no comment' and was quite sheepish about elaborating despite it being in black and white in their most recent presentations as a long-term goal of the company. I wonder if his half-sidestepping of the question has something to do with the uncertainty around competitors in the global IoT space. With the CTO of Fleet potentially now with another company whose business model appears to overlap more with the American company PLANET (source a video from I think foreign Correspondent), detailing geographical changes from space, etc, it could re-open that gargantuan market in IoT carriage for SAS that I had removed from my risk profile a couple of months ago.
Musings for the evening, but I do have a couple of chardies to fuel my google searching into the wee hours, I'll see what I can find
SAS Price at posting:
17.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
