Amazon won FCC approval on Tuesday for its roughly $11.6 billion acquisition of Globalstar, the satellite operator it agreed to buy in April so its Leo network can connect directly to phones and other devices. The FCC concluded the deal would benefit the public, largely by bringing better data service to places with weak coverage today. Globalstar currently runs the satellite emergency features on iPhones and Apple Watches, and under the deal Amazon will take over Apple’s 20% stake in the company and keep those Apple features running on Leo. The approval doesn’t close the deal, which Amazon still expects to finish in 2027, and it doesn’t cover Amazon’s separate request to launch as many as 5,105 direct-to-device satellites.
