Latest news with #ProjectEagle
Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Elon Musk's 72-hour ‘ultimatum' to Apple that may have put CEO Tim Cook in disagreement with his own team
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Elon Musk gave Apple CEO Tim Cook just 72 hours in 2022 to accept a $5 billion deal that would have made SpaceX the exclusive satellite provider for iPhones, or face competition from his own rival service. Apple rejected the offer, setting off a bitter three-year battle that continues to threaten the iPhone's satellite capabilities and has left Android users inadvertently grateful for Cook's defiance. The ultimatum came after Musk learned Apple planned to announce satellite connectivity for the iPhone 14 through partner Globalstar , according to a new report from The Information. SpaceX's proposal demanded $5 billion upfront for 18 months of exclusive iPhone satellite service , followed by $1 billion annually. When Apple declined, Musk made good on his threat, announcing a competing T-Mobile partnership just two weeks before the iPhone 14 launch, a deal that initially would have locked out Android devices entirely. Apple's satellite ambitions actually began nearly a decade earlier with the ambitious " Project Eagle ," a scrapped $36 million initiative that would have partnered with Boeing to launch thousands of satellites providing full internet service to both iPhones and homes by 2019. The project died due to fears of alienating carrier partners like Verizon and AT&T, who remain crucial to iPhone sales. SpaceX wages regulatory war against iPhone features SpaceX has since escalated the conflict through regulatory warfare, filing challenges to Globalstar's radio spectrum rights that could cripple iPhone satellite features if successful. The company accused Globalstar of hoarding unused spectrum to block competitors, specifically naming Apple in filings that reportedly alarmed Apple executives. SpaceX's vice president of satellite policy bluntly stated the spectrum battle "serves one purpose: to block competitive entry in frequencies Globalstar has never meaningfully used." The Information reports that Apple fears Musk's relationship with the Trump administration could give SpaceX advantages with federal regulators. This concern prompted Apple to hire dedicated staff to handle orbital spectrum issues and counter SpaceX's legal maneuvers. Industry analysts note that "SpaceX only thinks about Apple as a serious competitor and Apple only thinks about SpaceX as a serious competitor" in the satellite space. Adding to the pressure, Musk has demanded Apple broadly support SpaceX's T-Mobile satellite service across older iPhone models, a move that would maximize Starlink's market reach. Apple's reluctance to extend support beyond iPhone 14 models has further frustrated Musk, intensifying the standoff. When T-Mobile officially launches the service in July, compatible iPhones will default to Starlink rather than Apple's Globalstar solution, a final insult in their corporate feud. Apple executives fight company's own satellite strategy The satellite program faces fierce resistance within Apple itself, with senior executives including software chief Craig Federighi and corporate development head Adrian Perica reportedly pushing to kill the initiative entirely. Internal critics slam Globalstar's network as fundamentally inferior to rivals like Starlink, warning that even planned satellite upgrades won't meaningfully improve performance for a decade. Some former employees openly acknowledge that "SpaceX is ahead of Globalstar." The rebellion stems from fears that expanding satellite services could trigger federal regulation of Apple as a telecommunications carrier, potentially forcing the company to build surveillance backdoors into iMessage, a privacy nightmare for the company. Apple's refusal to charge for satellite features, despite spending hundreds of millions annually, reflects these regulatory concerns. The internal schism has created an unusual dynamic where Apple's own executives are betting against their company's multi-billion-dollar strategy, with some believing the satellite features should be abandoned entirely and left to carriers. Despite the internal revolt, Apple has doubled down with a $1.7 billion investment in Globalstar for new satellites, refusing to bow to either Musk's pressure or internal dissent. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Phone Arena
27-05-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Report reveals why T-Mobile users with Android phones should be grateful to Apple
T-Mobile's T-Satellite service, which ensures your phone can send and receive texts when your network is not available, works on many recent iPhones and Android phones. T-Mobile has teamed up with Elon Musk's company SpaceX to use its constellation of Starlink satellites to provide connectivity in dead zones. Per a new report, Musk initially wanted the services to be exclusive to satellite ambitions date back many years but the company has been careful not to go in too deep for fear of angering carriers on whom it relies to sell iPhones and triggering regulatory scrutiny. In a detailed report, The Information chronicles Apple's satellite efforts over the years. The company first launched Project Eagle, which revolved around teaming up with Boeing to roll out satellite internet connectivity to iPhones and homes. The project would have allowed Apple to reduce its reliance on carriers. Apple spent approximately $36 million on the project and wanted to introduce the service in 2019. The company eventually shelved the project. After that, Apple started exploring other wireless opportunities that would allow it to differentiate its offerings. The company held talks with numerous satellite companies, including OneWeb to launch a satellite home internet service. It also engaged in discussions with EchoStar to bring satellite connectivity to the iPhone. Nothing came out of those efforts, chiefly because Apple wasn't sure if it wanted to Apple began considering Globalstar as a partner for iPhone's satellite feature, Musk caught wind of its plans. This was three years ago. Musk said that he would exclusively provide satellite connectivity to iPhones for 18 months if the company would pay it $5 billion. After the exclusivity period ended, Musk suggested a yearly payment of $1 only gave Apple 72 hours to decide with a warning that if his offer was rejected, he would launch a satellite feature that could work with we know now, Apple ended up rejecting the offer and Musk followed through on his threat by announcing a partnership with T-Mobile in August 2022, two weeks before the iPhone 14 was announced. —Tim Farrar, president Telecom, Media & Finance Associates, May 2025 This worsened Apple's relationship with Musk, who has voiced criticism of Apple on various issues. He has even toyed with the idea of making his own phone whilst acknowledging that it's not an easy feat. SpaceX has been trying to stall Apple's satellite expansion effort. The company has objected to Globalstar's use of licensed spectrum and accused it of grabbing more than its fair share of spectrum. If SpaceX succeeds, the iPhone's satellite service may stop working. —David Goldman, SpaceX's vice president of satellite policy, 2023 Apple and SpaceX have also tangled over how much the Cupertino giant would support the rocket company's partnership with T-Mobile . Musk allegedly wanted to enable support for its satellite feature on a broad range of iPhone models, but Apple didn't want variants older than the iPhone 14 to have it. Apple also isn't seemingly happy about the fact that compatible iPhones will default to Starlink's service instead of using its Globalstar-powered solution when T-Mobile officially rolls out the feature in July. Meanwhile, Apple execs remain uncertain about their satellite initiative, which is costing it hundreds of millions of dollars annually and some have suggested killing it off. Apple is careful to bill its satellite feature as a complement to carrier offerings. The company also backed away from a plan set in motion in 2023 that would have used satellites to deliver internet service to iPhones in remote former employees are also of the view that SpaceX is ahead of Globalstar. The report has also revealed that the reason why Apple still hasn't started charging for the satellite feature is that it fears that the US government might start regulating it like a telecommunications carrier if it does. This could force it to build "build back doors into communication services like iMessage." Although T-Mobile 's rivals AT&T and Verizon have also entered partnerships with satellite companies to bring satellite connectivity to their users, the magenta carrier is far ahead, which is why Android users should be grateful that Cook rejected Musk's offers.
Irish Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Cost of probe into Nama's Northern Ireland sale tops €10m
Taxpayers paid €10.3 million for an investigation into a controversial property sale by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), including €2.4 million paid to the State organisation itself. The Government recently published a report by solicitor Susan Gilvarry into Project Eagle, Nama's €1.6 billion sale of Northern Ireland properties to US firm Cerberus in 2014. Her commission of investigation cost €10.34 million, figures that Ms Gilvarry has given the Oireachtas show. That includes €4.64 million in legal fees. The commission paid €2.44 million to Nama to cover legal advice given to witnesses for the agency. READ MORE [ Nama criticised over handling of 'success fee' in €1.6 billion Project Eagle sale after seven-year inquiry Opens in new window ] Nama provided 36 witnesses. Its total legal bill approached €7.5 million, but the body paid €5 million of this itself. Guidelines for such commissions of investigation only allow witnesses to claim legal costs where evidence calls their conduct or good name into question, or where it jeopardises personal or property rights. Ms Gilvarry and others working on the inquiry were paid €1.76 million, while administration costs fell just short of €1.5 million. Her investigation found no evidence that another bidder was willing to pay more for the Project Eagle assets than the price that Nama secured from Cerberus. However, she noted that the agency failed to properly clarify questions over a potential £5 million (€5.9 million) success fee promised to Frank Cushnahan, a former member of its Northern Ireland advisory committee, if another bidder, US business Pimco, had succeeded in buying the assets. After he resigned from the Nama committee, Mr Cushnahan worked as an adviser to Pimco, along with Belfast solicitors Tughan's and US lawyers, Brown Rudnick. Project Eagle consisted of €6 billion in loans to leading developers in Northern Ireland secured on properties there, in the Republic and Britain. Nama acquired them in 2010 when it took over property loans from Irish banks as part of the State's bid to save the Republic's financial system from collapse after a property speculation bubble burst. Ownership of the loans conferred the right to seek their repayment or take control of the properties against which they were secured. Nama sold them to Cerberus in April 2014. Controversy over the deal erupted in 2015, when it emerged that Tughan's managing partner, Ian Coulter, transferred €7 million in fees from the transaction to an Isle of Man bank account without his firm's knowledge. Mr Coulter transferred the cash back to the firm and resigned, leading to claims that political and business figures in the North were to benefit from the cash. The row led to a criminal investigation in the North, while separately the Republic's Comptroller and Auditor General found that Nama could have secured €220 million more for the loans. Government established Ms Gilvarry's commission, with her as its sole member, following the comptroller's findings.
Irish Times
01-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Even at €430,000 a year, Brendan McDonagh would be nuts to take the housing tsar job
There is, for some of us at least, a sort of irony about the notion of a man who by one measure did a lot to create the conditions for the housing crisis now being asked to sort it out. Now, in order to accept this description of Brendan McDonagh – the putative new head of the Housing Activation Office or 'housing tsar' – you would have to also accept the premise that Nama , which he has run for the last 16 years, botched the opportunity to reset the housing market . It's not unreasonable to argue that Nama, which controlled pretty much every acre of building land in the country when it was set up, could have done things differently. It is less reasonable to blame McDonagh, who did not design the State bad bank or set its objectives. That was a political decision. Based on the metrics by which he was judged, McDonagh did a good job. Nama is set to wind up at the end of this year with a surplus of about €5 billion after repaying the €32 billion it borrowed when it was set up the rescue the Irish banks. But does that make McDonagh the right man for the job of housing tsar? READ MORE If being the public face of the Government's housing policy is a key part of the role, then the answer is a straight no. McDonagh gives the impression of being someone who does not suffer fools gladly and who believes the media by and large falls firmly into the category of fools. Surprisingly taciturn for a Kerry man – in public at least – he could not be described as made-for-television. But that might be no harm. Chances are he will only be sent out to bat when the news is bad. When the news is good, he risks being trampled in the stampede of Ministers looking to take the credit. Arguably the quality that most recommends McDonagh for the job is that he is a realist and he, as he has suggested himself, knows how the world works. Buried in the report published this year of the commission of investigation into Project Eagle, the 2014 sale of Nama's Northern Irish loan portfolio, was a revealing comment from McDonagh. Asked why he did not tell the bank that was advising Nama on the deal that the leading bidder had pulled out because they were not happy about the way the process had been run, McDonagh replied: 'That's not the way the world works.' That attitude could serve him well, as might his long experience of navigating the upper echelons of the public service. [ How a housing 'tsar' in waiting became a PR problem for the Government Opens in new window ] It is worth noting that Nama is an unusual beast, insofar as it is legally at one remove from the Government. This is in order to prevent its debts being added to the State balance sheet. The extent to which Nama took orders from Merrion Street is harder to discern, but given that it held the solvency of the State in its hands during the first few years of its existence, it's likely politicians took a keen interest. Whatever the relationship was, it can be deemed a successful one. There was a clear plan – sell off the assets and repay the billions in Nama debt. Ensuring the State was able to meet its housing needs was not part of the mandate. With hindsight, that was a mistake. McDonagh and Nama executed the plan. It was no mean feat, but they had a formidable set of legal powers and clear ownership and control of the assets they were looking to sell. The critical nature of the success of Nama to the solvency of the Government meant that political interference was minimal. The role McDonagh is apparently contemplating would appear to be quite different. For starters, there is no real plan, just a lot of reports, strategy documents and powerful vested interests. The Housing Activation Office, which he is in line to run, is one of many ideas in the report of the Housing Commission , which was published last year and has been pretty much gathering dust ever since. The job description – insofar as there is one – is to bang heads together to get large projects off the ground. The heads include local authorities, utility providers and the construction industry. The Housing Commission envisaged that the office would have the power to resolve conflicts between the various stakeholders – but as things stand, there doesn't seem to be any plan to create those powers. McDonagh will thus be left with little more than moral persuasion to achieve the impossible. You can't help feeling the main function of the job is to be a lightning rod. McDonagh is no fool. If he gets the job, there is speculation he will remain an employee of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which manages the national debt and seconded him to Nama. Senior Government sources have said that if he were to end his secondment with Nama and return to the NTMA when the bad bank winds up, he could revert to a lower salary than the €430,000 he gets to run Nama, in line with what he was originally paid when he worked at the NTMA directly. There is some suggestion that these terms could justify offering him a lower salary as chair of the HAO. Either way, he would be nuts to take the job – unless, of course, he feels the need to try to sort out the mess he arguably could have done more to prevent.
