Gilat Satellite Networks

Gilat Satellite Networks is a public company headquartered in Israel[1] that develops and sells VSAT satellite ground stations and related equipment. Its shares are traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.

Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: GILT, TASE: GILT
Industry	Telecommunication
Founded	1987
Founder	Amiram Levinberg Joshua Levinberg Yoel Gat
Headquarters	Petah Tikva , Israel
Services	Satellite communication
Number of employees	864 (2020)
Subsidiaries	Wavestream Corporation
Website	www.gilat.com

History

Gilat Satellite Networks was founded in 1987 by brothers Joshua and Amiram Levinberg, Yoel Gat, Shlomo Tirosh, Arik Keshet, and Gideon Kaplan.[2] In its early days, Gilat struggled to compete with larger and better-established companies the likes of EchoStar.[3]

In 1998, Gilat was involved in founding Global Village Telecom (GVT), a company that built a satellite-based phone network for remote locations in South America using the VSAT technology that was developed by Gilat. During 1998 and 1999 GVT won tenders to build rural phone networks in Colombia,[4] Chile and Peru[5]

In 2000, Gilat introduced an innovation involving VSAT technology allowing remote locations, such as the Havasupai Reservation in Arizona and rural communities in Brazil, to access the internet at high speeds.[6][7] In February 2000, Gilat and Microsoft announced that they are co-developing a two-way satellite broadband service for consumer purposes. The satellite service delivered Internet connections at speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps and did not require a second telephone line. A new company, Gilat-To-Home, was established to deliver the broadband two-way satellite service and Microsoft took an initial 26 percent stake in the company with an investment of US$50 million.[8] In September 2000, Gilat-To-Home changed its name to StarBand Communications and received an investment of $50 million from EchoStar, who received an equity stake of 32 percent in StarBand.[9]

In 2011, Gilat announced the creation of a new division, headed by Brigadier General (Res.) Moshe Tamir, expanding its presence in the U.S. defense market.[10]

Strategic acquisitions

Company	Year	Price	Reference
Spacenet	1998	US$225 million	[11]
StarBand	2005		[12]
RaySat Antenna Systems	2010	US$25 million	[13]
Wavestream	2010	US$130 million	[14]

Products

• SkyEdge, SkyEdge II and NetEdge[15]
• MLT-1000 ruggedized spread-spectrum satellite modem[16]

See also

• TA BlueTech Index
• List of Israeli companies quoted on the Nasdaq
• Board Of director: chief executive officer Meir Shamir

References

1. Gilat Company Profiles - Israel
2. Landau, Efi (30 December 1999). "Yoel Gat – Gilat Satellite Networks". Globes. Archived from the original on 23 March 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2011. Leaving the unit together with Gat were Amiram Levinberg, his brother Joshua Levinberg, Shlomo Tirosh and Gideon Kaplan, and together they set up Gilat Satellite Networks (GILTF).
3. David L. Kurtz; Louis E. Boone (2009). Jack W. Calhoun (ed.). Contemporary Business. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-324-65389-2. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
4. Israel's GVT to Set Up $80 Mln Telephony Network in Colombia, Efi Landau Globes, 27/09/1999
5. GVT of Gilat Group Wins Second Tender in Chile: $2.5 Mln Rural Phone Network Efi Landau, Globes, 08/07/1998
6. Donald Mitchell; Carol Coles (2003). The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler. pp. 111–112. ISBN 1-57675-167-8. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
7. Sylvie Albert; Don Flournoy; Rolland LeBrasseur (2009). Networked Communities. Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global. ISBN 978-1-59904-771-3. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
8. MSN and Gilat Satellite Networks Introduce First Consumer Two-Way Satellite High-Speed Internet Access Service
9. EchoStar Completes $50 Million Investment in StarBand
10. Habib-Valdhorn, Shiri (5 October 2011). "Gilat Satellite Networks targets US defense market". Globes. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
11. "Gilat Acquires GE Spacenet in $225 Mln Stock Swap". Globes. 1 October 1998. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2011. Gilat Satellite Networks announced today that it had signed an agreement for the purchase of GE Spacenet of the General Electric group for $225 million.
12. "Gilat's Spacenet buys remaining Starband shares". Globes. 8 March 2005. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2011. Gilat Satellite Networks (Nasdaq: GILTF; TASE: GILTF) last night announced that its subsidiary, Spacenet Inc., had acquired all remaining shares of StarBand Communications Inc.
13. "GILAT SATELLITE NETWORKS LTD, Form 6-K, Filing Date Feb 28, 2011" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018. The Wavestream acquisition closed during the quarter and earlier in the year we acquired Raysat Antenna Systems.
14. "Gilat Satellite Networks Completes Acquisition Of Wavestream". RTTNews. 29 November 2010. Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
15. "Gilat Announces New Multi-star VSAT Networking Solution, NetEdge". GlobeNewswire. 15 June 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
16. "Gilat Introduces Very Lightweight Ku-Band Broadband Solution for Airborne Applications". MarketWatch. Petah Tikva, Israel. GlobeNewswire. 30 November 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2012.