SES Americom history

The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Luxembourg.“

Due to business and financial conditions, GE purchased RCA in 1986 and broke up the conglomerate by selling parts of it to other interests—except for the government services unit and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The satellite network continued to operate as GE Americom.

Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV became the first major private broadcaster to sign up to Astra in June 1988.

O primeiro cliente da empresa foi a que comprou 4 transponders para os seus serviços em 1989.

By 1990, Astra was broadcasting to 14 million cable and DTH viewers.

Rapid growth in Germany, in what would become Astra’s largest European market, was helped by the German government’s decision to liberalize the installation of dishes in 1991.

In August 1998, Astra 2A began its ascent from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, later becoming the first satellite to take up the position of 28.2° East.

In 1999, SES acquired a 34.13 percent interest in Hong Kong’s AsiaSat, thereby gaining a foothold in the APAC regions, although AsiaSat continued to operate its satellites independently.

In 2000, SES acquired half of the Norwegian satellite broadcaster Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB) and renamed that company Sirius, while, still in 2000, SES acquired a 19.99 percent interest in the Brazilian Star One system.

In November 2001, GE sold its GE Americom unit to SES for US$5 billion in cash and stock.

The year opens with SES’ entry into major indices at the Euronext Paris stock exchange, where the company was listed in 2004.

In the same year, SES went public on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange trading as SESG (in 2005 SES would also list on the Paris Euronext).

SES New Skies The full acquisition of New Skies Satellites (NSS) in March of 2006 led to the establishment of SES New Skies in September of 2006 with another six satellites added to the SES fleet.

In 2007 SES divested from its holdings in AsiaSat and Star One in a complex transaction with General Electric which itself divested from SES.

In September 2009, SES Americom and SES New Skies were re-branded SES World Skies.

SES’ interest in Nordic Satellites was increased to 75 percent and later to 90 percent and eventually, in 2010, to 100 percent ownership.

In February 2012, SES-4 was successfully launched to become SES’ 50th satellite and the largest, heaviest and most powerful in the fleet.

SES-6 was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on June 3, 2013 to 40.5°E, to replace NSS-806 and provide continuity of service and expansion capacity in C-band for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Bausch continues to serve SES as a non-executive Director, and is elected to take the role of Chairman at the start of 2015.