WASHINGTON — Maxar Technologies, an area technology firm that operates imaging satellites and manufactures spacecraft, has reorganized and eliminated executive positions, the corporate confirmed Sept. 20
The restructuring comes lower than five months after Maxar, previously a publicly traded company, was acquired by the private equity firm Advent International in a $6.4 billion deal.
Maxar is being restructured as two separate businesses: Maxar Space Infrastructure and Maxar Intelligence, a spokesperson told .
Chris Johnson, who runs Maxar’s satellite manufacturing operations, was named CEO of Maxar Space Infrastructure. Daniel Jablonsky, who had been president and CEO of Maxar Technologies since 2019, will lead Maxar Intelligence as interim CEO.
Maxar Space Infrastructure will oversee spacecraft manufacturing. Maxar Intelligence shall be accountable for the satellite imagery business, which was previously often known as Earth Intelligence and led by executive vice chairman Tony Frazier. The corporate declined to comment on Frazier’s status or whether he has left the corporate.
“As a part of this reorganization, Maxar reduced headcount by a small amount in some corporate functions,” the corporate said in an announcement. “We thank those individuals for his or her contributions and need them well in future endeavors.”
The twin-CEO structure, said Maxar, “enables each businesses to deliver for patrons and innovate leading-edge technology with dedicated focus.” The 2 businesses “will proceed to work together on joint programs, equivalent to WorldView Legion.”
WorldView Legion is Maxar’s next generation of high-resolution Earth imaging satellites.
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The launch of the six-satellite Legion constellation is years behind schedule as a consequence of supplier problems and other setbacks. Maxar in recent months has declined to supply updates on when the primary Legion satellites will get to orbit. Having these satellites in operation is essential to the longer term of the corporate, which currently relies on three legacy WorldView and one GeoEye optical imaging satellites. Based on industry sources, further delays are expected within the Legion program.
Jablonsky in an interview in April 2022 said demand for imagery was growing and Maxar expected to face a capability crunch until the Legion satellites were in operation. When Advent’s acquisition was announced in December, Jablonsky said the brand new owners intended to speculate in two additional Legion satellites, but the corporate has not provided any updates since.
Maxar said within the statement that it expects the brand new structure to assist generate more growth.
“That is an exciting time for each businesses, as demand for space and geospatial solutions continues to grow, and Maxar Space Infrastructure and Maxar Intelligence are well positioned to grow,” the corporate said.
Maxar is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, and manufactures satellites in Palo Alto, California.
Acquisition by Advent
Industry sources told on the World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris last week that a shakeup at Maxar was expected. Within the wake of the private equity acquisition, senior leadership changes should come as no surprise, several industry sources said.
“This can be a somewhat normal restructuring after being bought by a personal equity firm,” one industry official said. “They probably found just a few ways to get Maxar more focused and efficient of their businesses. And the Legion delays are also likely an element.”
Maxar in 2022 won a 10-year $3.2 billion contract from the National Reconnaissance Office to supply satellite imagery. Nonetheless, these sources said, the corporate’s recent owners were upset with revenue projections and the slow pace of the Legion satellite program.
Advent International purchased Maxar for $53 per share, a premium of about 129% over the corporate’s closing price of about $23.10 on Dec 15, 2022.
The acquisition followed a period when Maxar’s profile was raised as a consequence of the conflict in Ukraine — and the U.S. government’s reliance on the corporate’s satellites and ground equipment to gather and share images of troop movements and battle damage.
Although the conflict served as a distinguished use case for business imaging satellites and their power to deliver crucial intelligence, experts identified that it has not translated into growing sales of images and analytics services outside of the Ukraine crisis.
Efforts to diversify
Over the past 12 months, Maxar and other firms within the satellite distant sensing industry have sought to expand their offerings beyond optical imagery, trying to capture a broader spectrum of knowledge from space.
Maxar has actively promoted a brand new “non-Earth imaging” capability to make use of its satellites to take pictures of objects in space and sell them commercially, but has not yet announced any contracts for that service.
The corporate also has branched out into other sensing phenomenologies equivalent to satellite-based synthetic aperture radar — sensors that may see through clouds — and radio-frequency mapping for the detection of electronic jammers.
Maxar in February announced a cope with SAR startup Umbra to get dedicated access to the corporate’s radar imaging constellation. Maxar also acquired radio-frequency mapping startup Aurora Insight, a 12 months after it made a strategic investment in the corporate.
The organizational and leadership changes going down at Maxar are “simply a part of doing business” within the wake of being taken private, said Keith Masback, a consultant and investor within the distant sensing industry, and a former National Geospatial Intelligence Agency official.
“Now that the proverbial axe has fallen, there shall be myriad questions on the longer term of Maxar,” Masback told . “The corporate plays a crucial role in national security distant sensing, and its largest customer — the U.S. government — will need to have a transparent understanding of plans for the way in which forward.”