I always thought PowerPoint presentations were fairly innocuous and really just a way of stimulating debate, but it seems a presentation that Kay Sears gave in 2007 was a key spark behind the deal that ultimately took place between GeoMetWatch and AsiaSat.

    The recent deal flow in hosted payloads has been encouraging. The agreements between Harris/Iridium, Arabsat/EMC, AsiaSat/GeoMetWatch have provided renewed vigor to the whole hosted payload debate. The more real world examples we have of successful contracts, the more likely others are going to take a leap of faith in terms of hosted payloads.

    This e-letter talks to two of the key customers in these recent deals. We talk to EMC’s new president, Blake McLane about the Arabsat deal, as well as how EMC will look to persify its business going forward. With the company looking at the enterprise sector more and more, the deal with Arabsat could be a catalyst in serving different enterprise verticals going forward.

    Our executive Q and A is with David Crain, the CEO of GeoMetWatch who talks about the company’s strategy towards hosted payloads, the agreement they signed with AsiaSat, as well the influence of that PowerPoint presentation by Kay Sears.

    The good news with these latest set of deals is that the topic of hosted payloads is moving front and center again, and this can only be good news for our industry.