Musk’s Starlink rival Eutelsat shares fall after SoftBank stake cut report
French satellite group EutelsatApple’s share price, often seen as Europe’s answer to Elon Musk’s Starlink, tumbled on Wednesday following a report that Japanese investor SoftBank was reducing its stake in the company.
Eutelsat shares were last traded down 7.2% as of 04:41 GMT.
The moves follow a Reuters report that SoftBank sold 36 million rights, accounting for about 26 million shares and about half its stake in the satellite operator.
Eutelsat owns satellite internet provider OneWeb, with which it merged in 2023 to challenge Starlink’s dominance in the market.
However, the French group had difficulty taking advantage of the US company’s market share. Eutelsat currently has more than 600 satellites in orbit, while Starlink has more than 6,750 satellites, according to the companies’ websites.
Eutelsat shares, which rose more than 600 percent in early March this year as Europe sought to strengthen its technology dominance after the United States cut military support to Ukraine, have fallen more than 70 percent since then.
The company is vital to Europe’s goals of technology dominance. In June, the French state invested 1.35 billion euros ($1.57 billion) in Eutelsat, becoming its largest shareholder with a stake of approximately 30%.
Eutelsat and SoftBank have been approached for comment.
