- Paul E. Jacobs, Ph.D., founder of XCOM Labs and former CEO and
Executive Chairman of Qualcomm, has become CEO of Globalstar
- Matt Grob, Chief Technology Officer of XCOM and former CTO of
Qualcomm, has also joined Globalstar as Chief Technology Officer;
Grob and other key XCOM technologists are expected to drive
Globalstar’s innovation in new and ongoing initiatives across both
the satellite and terrestrial areas of the business
- Globalstar has exclusively licensed XCOM Labs’ technology to
enhance its terrestrial wireless efforts, with the goal of
accelerating and expanding its ability to develop commercial
applications and enter a broader range of end markets
Globalstar, Inc. (NYSE American: GSAT) (“Globalstar”) today
announced that Paul E. Jacobs, Ph.D., founder and CEO of XCOM Labs
and former CEO and Executive Chairman of Qualcomm, has been
appointed CEO of Globalstar, effective immediately. Dr. Jacobs has
also been appointed to Globalstar’s Board of Directors. He succeeds
David Kagan, who will retire as Globalstar’s CEO.
Dr. Jacobs is an accomplished leader and innovator who brings to
Globalstar deep wireless industry experience and a track record of
driving innovation-led growth, including growing Qualcomm’s
revenues from $5.7 billion to $25.7 billion as CEO from 2005 to
2014 while adding approximately $50 billion to its market
capitalization. As Globalstar’s CEO, he will drive the Company’s
ongoing strategic initiatives to develop and deploy innovative
solutions across terrestrial and satellite for customers around the
world.
In conjunction with Dr. Jacobs’ appointment, Globalstar has also
entered into a strategic perpetual licensing agreement for
exclusive access to certain key XCOM technologies and personnel.
The license covers a number of XCOM’s novel technologies for
wireless spectrum innovations, including XCOMP, XCOM’s commercially
available coordinated multipoint radio system. XCOMP delivers
substantial capacity gains and other benefits in dense, complex,
challenging wireless environments in sub 7 GHz spectrum. Globalstar
also gains exclusive access to XCOM’s peer-to-peer connectivity
technologies that could have applications across cellular and
satellite devices.
Dr. Jacobs said, “I have devoted my career to advancing and
commercializing innovation in wireless technology and am thrilled
to continue this journey as CEO of Globalstar. The teams I’ve led
have demonstrated the value creation that is possible by applying
new technology to enhance capacity of underappreciated spectrum,
and that is one of the many opportunities I see at Globalstar.”
Jacobs continued, “Bringing together Globalstar’s terrestrial
spectrum and relationships with leading partners around the world
with XCOM’s differentiated technology, which is well suited for
high-performance applications, creates a significant opportunity to
deliver for private network customers with mission-critical needs.
At the same time, Globalstar’s continued innovations in satellite
connectivity are just as exciting, particularly in small
form-factor devices. Through the combination of Globalstar’s
resources and XCOM’s technology, we can bring even more innovation
to market. I look forward to working with the talented Globalstar
team and its many commercial partners to advance growth across the
Company’s four well-articulated strategic pillars and create
long-term shareholder value.”
Globalstar Executive Chairman Jay Monroe said, “We have deep
respect and familiarity developed from a close working relationship
with the XCOM team over the last 20 years. Some of XCOM’s leaders
contributed to the original Globalstar system while at Qualcomm,
and we believe we will continue to break new ground with this team.
Paul is a technology pioneer and proven leader who is well suited
to drive Globalstar’s next phase of growth across our satellite and
terrestrial assets and cement our position as a market disruptor.
The engineering prowess extends throughout the XCOM organization,
including to Matt Grob, Peter Black, Tamer Kadous and Daaman
Hejmadi, amongst many others. Our partnerships with world-class
customers, including our pioneering work in direct to device
connectivity from our satellites, as well as our collaborations
with Qualcomm, Nokia and others with Band n53, demonstrate the
strength of Globalstar’s momentum and growing commercial solutions.
We expect that Paul’s leadership, combined with this licensing
agreement, will boost Globalstar’s ability to unlock the value of
our global satellite and terrestrial assets and accelerate the
introduction of new and innovative solutions for our customers,
with the continued goal of driving long-term shareholder
value.”
Monroe added, “I also want to thank David Kagan for leading
Globalstar so capably since 2017, helping build the foundation for
the Company’s future growth and supporting a seamless transition of
his duties to Dr. Jacobs and the new team.”
Enhanced Executive Talent
In addition to Dr. Jacobs, XCOM senior executives Matt Grob,
Chief Technology Officer, and Peter Black, Chief Scientist, have
joined Globalstar. Also, Tamer Kadous, Vice President of Wireless,
and Daaman Hejmadi, Vice President of Engineering, have accepted
Globalstar’s offers of employment and are expected to join
Globalstar after completing a transition period with XCOM.
Collectively, these leading engineers are expected to help
accelerate the Company’s ongoing commercialization work across both
the satellite and terrestrial spectrum areas of the business, as
well as develop capabilities and applications that leverage
Globalstar’s assets in new ways.
Their deep expertise in developing cutting-edge wireless
connectivity solutions complements Globalstar’s experienced team.
Their efforts will be enhanced by dozens of XCOM employees,
including engineering, test, product and R&D professionals who
will remain with XCOM and continue to drive innovation.
Monroe continued, “The fact that we are attracting such
visionary technologists to lead us going forward is a testament to
the high caliber of Globalstar talent today, as well as the
significant opportunity created by Globalstar’s differentiated
assets.”
Additional Details
Under the terms of the perpetual licensing agreement, the
consideration for an upfront licensing fee and related costs will
be approximately 60 million shares of Globalstar common stock.
Employees of XCOM focused on the extended reality connectivity
technology will not be impacted by this licensing agreement.
To facilitate the funding of XCOM’s ongoing operations, some of
the shares issued as consideration for the licensing fee will be
sold and delivered to certain long-term Globalstar and XCOM
shareholders.
The transactions described in this release, including governance
matters, reportable sale and purchase transactions, registration of
shares and other related matters, will be reported in due course in
various SEC filings, including on Forms 3, 4, 8-K and S-1.
Advisors
Globalstar was advised on the agreement by BDT & MSD
Partners as financial advisors and Taft, Stettinius & Hollister
LLP as legal counsel. XCOM Labs was advised by TD Cowen as
financial advisors and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP as legal
counsel.
Biographies
- Dr. Paul E. Jacobs founded XCOM Labs in 2018 to invest
with the world’s most creative engineers and businesspeople. As
former CEO and Executive Chairman of Qualcomm, Dr. Jacobs
spearheaded its efforts to develop and commercialize fundamental
mobile technology breakthroughs that fueled the wireless internet
and smartphone revolutions. Dr. Jacobs is a prolific inventor with
over 80 U.S. patents granted or pending in the field of wireless
technology and devices. He served as a director of Qualcomm from
June 2005 to March 2018, including as Chairman of the board of
directors from March 2009 to March 2018, and as Executive Chairman
from March 2014 to March 2018. Dr. Jacobs is currently a member of
the board of directors at both Dropbox, Inc. and Arm Limited. He is
also an owner and vice chairman of the Sacramento Kings of the
National Basketball Association (NBA), and on the board of FIRST,
the robotics and education organization inspiring future leaders in
science and technology. He attended the University of California,
Berkeley, where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Dr. Jacobs is a member
of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- Matt Grob has served as Chief Technology Officer of
XCOM, responsible for developing innovative wireless technologies,
since 2018. Grob previously spent over 26 years at Qualcomm in
technology and engineering leadership roles. He served as
Qualcomm’s EVP and CTO from 2011 to 2017, overseeing R&D and
managing a global team of 2,200 employees across various divisions
worldwide, and later as EVP/Technology. Grob holds a B.S. in
Electrical Engineering from Bradley University and an M.S. in
Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He is a trustee of
the Fleet Science Center in San Diego and a volunteer for over a
decade at FIRST.
- Peter Black has served as XCOM Labs Chief Scientist
since 2018. Previously an SVP of Technology and Fellow at Qualcomm,
Black has worked on wireless system designs spanning
2G/3G/4G/5G/6G. He contributed to all aspects of the life cycle of
new innovations, starting with the concept, system design,
prototype, standardization and finally, the commercial ASIC
realizations. He was a modem system architect in 1995 for the first
commercial CDMA modem chip – the foundational Qualcomm chip-set
product. In 1998, Peter co-led an R&D project which led to the
high-speed Mobile Internet starting with 1xEV-DO. Concepts such as
shared downlink, adaptive HARQ, link adaption, carrier-state
feedback, fairness scheduling, carrier aggregation and cellular
broadcast were designed, prototyped, standardized and
commercialized over the next 10 years under his direct technical
leadership. The 3GPP HSDPA standard was motivated by and based on
this foundational EVDO work. He holds 200+ US patents and holds a
B.E. in Electrical Engineering from University of Queensland and
was awarded a University Medal. He was also awarded a Fulbright
Traveling Scholarship and attended Stanford University, graduating
with an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.
- Tamer Kadous is currently the VP of wireless in XCOM,
where he has been responsible for building and commercializing
state-of-the-art wireless technologies for KPI-demanding
applications with emphasis on Xtended Reality (XR) and factory
automation. In his current role, Tamer drives the wireless division
across all disciplines, covering areas of design, implementation,
testing and commercial deployment, in addition to front-line
product responsibilities such as technical marketing and product
strategy and roadmap. Under Tamer’s leadership, two commercial
systems have been built in XCOM-labs for licensed and unlicensed
spectrum wireless technologies - these systems are currently
undergoing pre-commercial trials. Before XCOM, Tamer worked in
Qualcomm Research, where his career focused on the delivery of
technology from design principles to completion. He has held the
role of Design Architect, Systems Lead and Project Lead for a
variety of projects focusing on wireless innovations in WAN and
connectivity areas, including UMB (ultra-mobile broadband), WLAN,
EV-DO, LTE, LTE-U and MulteFire. He served as the Chair of
MulteFire Alliance Radio Working Group from 2016 to 2018 and was
the technical lead for 5G shared spectrum and MulteFire (MF)
Technologies in Qualcomm Research. Mr. Kadous earned his Ph.D. in
Wireless Communications from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
- Daaman Hejmadi currently serves as the XCOM Labs Vice
President of Engineering. Mr. Hejmadi brings extensive executive
leadership and engineering experience to the team. His work has
spanned semiconductor startups to device manufacturing giants over
the past three decades. He most recently co-founded a startup
company building the brain of an autonomous automobile focused on
the rapidly growing market in China. Prior to this, Daaman worked
at Intel from 2016 to 2020. His last role at Intel was as Corporate
Vice President & Infrastructure and Platform Solutions Group
General Manager focused on the recovery of process technology
leadership by creating a development platform for internal and
external customers. This was preceded by nine years with Qualcomm
in the capacity of Vice President of Engineering, revolutionizing
their development landscape and transforming their Bangalore design
center from a small augmentation team to an engineering powerhouse
comprised of ~4K staff that continues to deliver long-term value.
Daaman holds an M.B.A. in Organizational Behavior and Finance from
the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.S. in Computer
Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He
earned his B.E. (Computer Science and Engineering) at the Indian
Institute of Science, preceded by a B.S. in Physics/Electronics
from the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning.
About Globalstar, Inc.
Globalstar empowers its customers to connect, transmit and
communicate in smarter ways – easily, quickly, securely and
affordably – offering reliable satellite and terrestrial
connectivity services as an international telecom infrastructure
provider.
The Company’s LEO satellite constellation assures secure data
transmission for connecting and protecting assets, delivering key
operational data and saving lives – from any location – for
consumers, businesses and government agencies across the globe.
Globalstar’s terrestrial spectrum, Band 53/n53, offers carriers,
cable companies and system integrators a versatile, fully licensed
channel with a growing ecosystem to improve customer wireless
connectivity, while Globalstar’s XCOMP technology offers
significant capacity gains in dense wireless deployments.
In addition to SPOT GPS messengers, Globalstar offers
next-generation IoT hardware and software products for efficiently
tracking and monitoring assets, processing smart data at the edge
and managing analytics with cloud-based telematics solutions to
drive safety, productivity and profitability.
About XCOM Labs
XCOM Labs is delivering on the promise of next-gen mobile
technologies. Founded in 2018 by the former executive and
technology team that developed and/or launched Qualcomm’s
pioneering 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and other transformative wireless
technologies, XCOM Labs has attracted some of the world’s most
accomplished mobile, software and hardware talent. Headquartered in
San Diego, XCOM Labs has developed a suite of patented technologies
leveraging licensed and unlicensed spectrum for seamless and secure
mobile XR experiences and ultra-high performance 5G and next-gen
networks serving military, defense, entertainment, communications,
logistics and warehousing, training and development and medical
tech leaders. To learn more about XCOM Labs, visit
www.xcom-labs.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain statements that are
“forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that
are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual
results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements, such as the statements regarding our
ability to identify and realize opportunities and to generate the
expected revenues and other benefits of the license agreement, our
ability to integrate the licensed technology into our current line
of business, the ability of Dr. Jacobs and other new employees to
drive innovation and growth, and other statements contained in this
release regarding matters that are not historical facts, involve
predictions. Any forward-looking statements made in this press
release are believed to be accurate as of the date made and are not
guarantees of future performance. Actual results or developments
may differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in
the forward-looking statements, and we undertake no obligation to
update any such statements. Additional information on factors that
could influence our financial results is included in our filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual
Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current
Reports on Form 8-K.
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