New Skies Satellites

SES World Skies was a short lived company formed as a result of the merger between the two SES subsidiaries, SES Americom and SES New Skies. The company was merged into its parent company, SES S.A. in 2011.

SES Americom traces its roots back to RCA Americom, formed in 1975. RCA Americom was notable for launching the Satcom series of satellites which were instrumental in helping early American cable TV channels gain traction. In 1986, General Electric acquired RCA and renamed the Americom unit to GE Americom. Fifteen years later, in 2001, GE sold its GE Americom unit to SES for $5 billion in cash and stock.

In 1998, Intelsat transferred 5 of its 24 satellites to New Skies Satellites N.V., a Dutch start up company formed by Intelsat to help move Intelsat towards privatization. In June 2004, New Skies Satellites was sold to The Blackstone Group for $956 million. Eighteen months later, SES Global (now SES S.A.) agreed to purchase New Skies from Blackstone for $1.16 billion.

In September 2006 the company name was changed from New Skies Satellites to SES New Skies.

In September 2009, SES New Skies and SES Americom were merged to form SES World Skies.

In September 2011, SES World Skies and SES Astra were merged into SES S.A. to streamline operations under a single management system.