SES Americom

SES AMERICOM

Type	Private company
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1975
Headquarters	Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Products	Satellite services
Revenue	€ ? billion (2006)
Operating income	€ ? billion (2006)
Net income	€ ? billion (2006)
Number of employees	414 (2007)
Parent	SES S.A.
Website	SES Americom

SES Americom was a major commercial satellite operator based in the United States. Formerly RCA Americom and GE Americom, the company became (with SES Astra and SES New Skies) one of the principal parts of SES S.A.. As of January 2010, SES Americom was re-branded as SES World Skies along with SES New Skies.^[1]

Satellite Fleet

SES Americom operates the following satellites:^[2]

History

RCA American Communications (RCA Americom) was founded in 1975 as an operator of RCA Astro Electronics-built satellites. The company's first satellite; Satcom 1, was launched on December 12, 1975. Satcom 1 was one of the earliest geostationary satellites.

Satcom 1 was instrumental in helping early cable TV channels (such as Superstation TBS and CBN) to become initially successful, because these channels distributed their programming to all of the local cable TV headends using the satellite. Additionally, it was the first satellite used by broadcast TV networks in the United States, like ABC, NBC, and CBS, to distribute their programming to all of their local affiliate stations. The reason that Satcom 1 was so widely used is that it had twice the communications capacity of the competing Westar 1 (24 transponders as opposed to Westar 1’s 12), which resulted in lower transponder usage costs.

14 more (increasingly sophisticated) Satcom satellites would enter service from 1976 to 1992. In 1986 General Electric acquired RCA and renamed the Americom unit GE American Communications (GE Americom). From 1996 new satellites were named in the GE-# series, i.e. GE-1 in 1996, GE-2 in 1997 etc.

SES purchase

In 2001 SES Global was formed by SES for the $4.3 billion acquisition of GE Americom, which was completed in November of that year. SES Global was established as the group management company; with the renamed SES Americom and SES Astra as subsidiaries.

After the acquisition of GE Americom by SES, all the satellites previously named with the GE-# prefix were renamed to AMC-# (i.e., GE-1 renamed to AMC-1, and so on).

The President and CEO of the new SES Americom was Dean Olmstead.^[17] He left the company in 2004 and was succeeded by Edward Horowitz. SES Americom was subsequently placed under Robert Bednarek, the President and CEO of SES New Skies.^[18]

In September 2009, SES Americom and SES New Skies were re-branded SES World Skies.^[19]

See also

• SES S.A.
• Astra
• SES New Skies

References

External links

• SES Americom Official site

General Electric Subsidiaries and divisions Current GE Capital GE Capital Aviation Services GE Commercial Finance GE Energy Financial Services GE Capital Rail Services (Europe) GE Technology Infrastructure GE Aviation GE Aviation Systems GE Healthcare GE Transportation GE Energy GE Digital Energy GE Jenbacher GE Measurement & Control Solutions GE Oil & Gas GE Power GE Wind Energy GE Wind (offshore) GE Home & Business Solutions GE Intelligent Platforms GE Global Research GE Ventures Former and defunct Australian Guarantee Corporation1 Canadian General Electric1 Compagnia Generale di Elettricità2 Electric Bond and Share Company2 GE Americom2 GE Aerospace2 GE Betz1 GE Capital IT Solutions2 GE Consumer & Industrial GECIS2 GE Capital Rail Services2 GE Equipment Services1 GE Industrial1 GE Infrastructure1 GEIS2 Genesis Lease2 GE Security2 Genworth Financial2 Montgomery Ward2 Synchrony Financial2 Tungsram1 Whatman1 Joint ventures and shareholdings Current CFM International (50%) Engine Alliance (50%) GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (60%) GE Honda Aero Engines (50%) Penske Truck Leasing Prolec GE (49.99%) TBS GB Former Alco-GE (1940–53) NBC (1926–30, 1986–2004) NBCUniversal, LLC (2004–13) Products and brands Aircraft engines General Comprehensive Operating System GEnie Locomotives Mazda Reciprocating engines Trivection oven Tungsram People Founders Charles A. Coffin Thomas Edison Edwin J. Houston Elihu Thomson Other James Cash, Jr. Ann Fudge Susan Hockfield Jeffrey R. Immelt Andrea Jung Rochelle Lazarus Sam Nunn Roger Penske Douglas A. Warner III Jack Welch Bob Wright Places and facilities GE Building General Electric Building Nela Park Realty Plot Research Laboratory River Works Specialty Control Plant Switchgear Plant Welch Technology Centre Other Edison Engineering Development Program GE True The General Electric Concert General Electric EdgeLab General Electric Theater General Imaging Thomson-Houston Electric Company Timeline United States v. General Electric Co. 1Now integrated into other GE divisions or business groupings 2Sold or spun off Category Commons