Comments on: DigitalGlobe + GlobeXplorer = ?

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 03:44:53 +0000

@JOD,
NGA ‘owns’ all imagery collections? Don’t you mean the taxpayer owns the collections, with course for rights management and course for National Security?

@Everyone Else,
I think it’s interesting that so many have jumped the page of thought in relation to the consolidation – when – for the last few years now, we’ve all been wondering how in the world we aim to compete with newer sensors that may or may not become launched before any US company satellites are deployed and operational.

Please tell me you’re all joking, right?

Not mention, DG providing an end-to-end chain of distribution like they did back in the day is a bad thing? Or is it that you’re all imagery producers who’ve been making money in the little experiment that DG set-up so that you can make a little money on the side doing production work for their library?

I’m also still scratching my head at the guy that thinks DG is somehow aligning itself to become a ‘competitor’ to Google Earth.

By: Lucas

Lucas — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:34:52 +0000

What do DG stocks cost?
I know that they are still private!

By: Adena Schutzberg

Adena Schutzberg — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:29:20 +0000

I just want to respond to Paul’s point about how other providers of imagery might be wary of distributing through GE, now owned by DG. I asked that very question of the CEO in our podcast. She said all the providers are lining up for distributors and that DG could sign virtually all the other satellite providers now. She didn’t mention the aerial folks.
http://www.directionsmag.com/images/podcasts/070105_Jill_Smith.mp3

Adena

By: Brian Flood

Brian Flood — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:02:52 +0000

i thought Google was under the stranglehold of DG? at least, that’s the way Google always portrays it…”it’s not us, it’s DG that won’t let us share the data”

By: J Wallis

J Wallis — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:08:21 +0000

Smart move DG, they knew their agreement was so draconian so what do they do? They go buy a company that just made a deal with microsoft and so that breaks them out of the Google stranglehold, way to go DG! Now we just need GlobeXplorer to make some “deals” with ESRI.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:45:04 +0000

I wonder how this and the recent GlobeXplorer deal with Microsoft deal will affect their relationship with Google? Anyone have any ideas?

By: The Earth Is Square » Blog Archive » Virtual Earth, Digital Globe, Google Earth .. and World Wind

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:49:50 +0000

[...] Been doing some reading today and wondering.Â First off we have Digital Globe buying GlobeXplorer and then we have Google and Digital Globe in an “exclusive” imagery deal.Â Now we find out that Microsoft has inked a deal with GlobeXplorer for for then 400,000 square miles of high res US Imagery. [...]

By: JOD

JOD — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 01:09:53 +0000

As both the major US commercial satellite companies are propped up by NGA funding doesn’t the government simply own everything? Look what happened to Space Imaging, they didn’t get an NGA contract then they get bought out (for a fraction of their cost) by OrbImage (who did receive a contract) and rebranded as GeoEye. Shouldn’t the real concern be that the government controls who survives and who dies in the commercial satellite imaging world? Or perhaps without NGA funding there would be no commercial satellite imagery marketplace? Look who buys the data? Those of us who make single scene purchases are a drop in the bucket compared to NextView/ClearView contracts.

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:50:57 +0000

You’re missing the point – DG bought GE, not the other way around. Whatever relationships GE had are the ones in risk. This transaction also moves DG into a competitor role with one of it’s biggest customers – Google – which will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Regardless, DG has shown clearly inept leadership for quite some time with the constant yoyo’ing between wanting to be a direct sales versus channel sales. Hiring sales people, and firing them to hire channel managers. They’ve done this at least twice in the past 5 years. They are doing this again with the GE purchase – moving from channel back to direct (via GE).

In the end their partners and customers both are the losers in this.

Stay tuned for a DG IPO coming soon based on perceived value of owning the entire chain.

By: Vector One

Vector One — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:27:26 +0000

You know…it might be worth looking a bit wider.

I would say that SPOT Image has had a world wide model that collects and distributes imagery for a long time. RADARSAT does, Infoterra in Europe (EADS) is about to forge ahead with TerraSAR and TerraSAR-X and are actively integrating services, GeoEye has always offered integrated services.

In fact, when I think about it, only DigitalGlobe has not really put it together end-to-end, until this announcement. In this respect, they are doing what others have been doing.

I see today at Very Spatial, that India alone is launching 4 sats, RapidEye in Germany is about to launch a constellation and, again, Infoterra (not to mention ESA) and the British Space Agency have birds up there.

Lots more are coming.

In my mind, the IPO issue is a big issue, but apart from this announcement. Say…for example, one company that currently distributes a lot of images, but cannot sell them or allow them to be used for commercial purposes, suddenly owns 51% of said IPO issues – then – things change.

Keep up the good work.