SpaceX is buying communications smallsat operator Swarm Technologies

I have a theory they're buying it more for the engineering talent and personnel, than any intention to run a narrow-bandwidth cubesat M2M communications network as a separate thing to starlink.

Very complementary.<p>They are going to have synergies obviously around launch (swarm sats are relatively tiny so cost now with spaceX for launch is going to be very low).<p>Product is also differentiated. You want global low bandwidth (primarily M2M but can also be search and rescue etc) along with the higher bandwidth &#x2F; power &#x2F; footprint starlink stuff. Businesses often strugle with being competed against from the bottom - I hope SpaceX keeps the swarm idea going.<p>Obviously a way to pick up capable engineering talent. If they can do sat to sat comms (I think still an area of some development to really dial in). that&#x27;s going to be big for everyone - and if swarm can interoperate &#x2F; get backhaul in space from starlink - amazing.

Some details on the technology&#x2F;licenses being acquired: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fcc.report&#x2F;IBFS&#x2F;SAT-T-C-20210806-00096&#x2F;12345289" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fcc.report&#x2F;IBFS&#x2F;SAT-T-C-20210806-00096&#x2F;12345289</a>

Very curious about the price. And whether this is a hopeful acquisition to expand on what Swarm is doing, a fire sale of a company that couldn&#x27;t make the financials work, or some monopolistic move to snuff out a competitor.

The Swarm Tile looks easily integratable into PCB designs. And, it&#x27;s very low power. Although, I wonder why they need about 3 Watts power consumption when transmitting. At their low transmit frequencies (148-150 MHz), I would think they could lower that number to less than 1 Watt since the wavelengths are so long. But hey, if you deploy your sensor in a sunny location with solar panels, then why not?