The AMOS-1 Israeli geostationary satellite,
located at 4 degrees west, began operations in
1996. It was built by the Israeli Aircraft
Industries (IAI) and uses 7 Ku-band transponders,
primarily for direct-to-home television
broadcasting, TV distribution and VSAT services
for customers in the Middle East and in Central
Europe. Spacecom Ltd. is the exclusive marketer
and service provider of AMOS-1 services.
Another satellite, the Gurwin-II TechSAT, was
launched in July 1998. This experimental
satellite was designed, manufactured and is
controlled by The Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology. The Gurwin-II TechSAT provides
communications, remote sensing and research
services.
ImageSat system- designed and manufactured, like
AMOS-1, by IAI, provides services via MBT Ltd.,
an international consortium headed by Israeli
Aircraft Industries, had launched its EROS
satellite in 2000. EROS is a non-geostationary
orbit satellite, which provides highly accurate
commercial photography and surveillance services.
In December 2003, Spacecom Ltd. launched AMOS-2
and it is co-located with AMOS-1. AMOS-2 has 11
Ku-band transponders and 3 backup transponders,
72 MHz bandwidth each. It has 3 spot beams: the
Middle East beam supports up to 11 transponders;
the Europe beam supports up to 6 transponders;
and US East Coast beam supports up to 8
transponders.
Kyphon buys Disc-O-Tech's spinal assets for $220m
Kyphon Inc. (Nasdaq: KYPH), today announced that
it would acquire all spine-related assets of
Disc-O-Tech medical technologies. Under the terms
of the agreement, Kyphon will pay Disc-O-Tech $60
million immediately, another $40 million with the
sale of two initial products and a total of
another $120 million in three equal annual
installments will be paid beginning in January
2008 for Disc-O-Tech's Confidence System assets.
An additional $20 million, in contingent payments
may also be paid based on the development of
further technologies. Kyphon will finance the
upfront payments due with cash on hand and an
already established escrow.