Faced with the multiple challenges induced by the emergence of Elon Musk’s Starlink service, the shareholders of Eutelsat chose the electroshococ. The French communication satellite operator announced, on Monday, May 5, the replacement of its director general, Eva Berneke, by Jean-François Fallacher, the boss of Orange France. He will take up his duties from 1is June, proof of the urgency of the situation.
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-Of Danish and French -speaking nationality, Ms. Berneke has run Eutelsat since January 2022. It was she who led the acquisition, in 2023, of Oneweb, a constellation in low orbit. From a strategic point of view, the purchase was judicious: the operator is, to date, the only one who can compete with Starlink in the internet connection by satellites. At least, as long as competing services like Kuiper, funded by the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, have not yet entered service.
However, from a financial point of view, the operation endangered the survival of Eutelsat. To finance the development of its space infrastructure, part of which will be used for Iris², the sovereign constellation wanted by the European Commission, the operator will have to find more than 4 billion euros by 2032, while it was already carrying 2.7 billion euros in debt at the end of 2024.
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