Iridium Communications (IRDM) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Iridium published the results on October 20, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison.

• Iridium agreed on June 28, 2026 to be acquired by Rocket Lab. Stockholders approved the deal on September 24, 2026, and Iridium expects it to close by mid-2027. Because of the pending deal, Iridium no longer holds earnings calls or provides financial guidance.
• Iridium completed its acquisition of Aireon on July 2, 2026 and consolidates it from Q3 2026. Q3 net income includes a $103.9 million gain related to the acquisition, recorded as a gain on equity method investments.

Source: Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, October 20, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Iridium splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Iridium's Commercial service revenue was $160 million in Q3 2026, up 16% from $138 million in Q3 2025, 65% of total revenue.
• Iridium's Government service revenue was $27.6 million in Q3 2026, up 2% from $26.9 million in Q3 2025, 11% of total revenue.
• Iridium's Subscriber equipment revenue was $19.0 million in Q3 2026, down 11% from $21.5 million in Q3 2025, 8% of total revenue.
• Iridium's Engineering and support revenue was $39.2 million in Q3 2026, down 2% from $40.2 million in Q3 2025, 16% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP total revenue and diluted net income per share, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Iridium's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 20, 2026

Iridium runs a global satellite network, and most of its revenue is recurring service fees. Total revenue was $245.7 million in Q3 2026, up 8%, and service revenue of $187.5 million was 76% of it. Commercial service revenue was $159.9 million, government service $27.6 million, subscriber equipment $19.0 million and engineering and support $39.2 million. (Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026)

The Aireon acquisition drove the growth. Iridium closed it on July 2, 2026, and hosted payload and other data service revenue, which now includes Aireon's space-based ADS-B air traffic surveillance data, rose $22.7 million, or 121%, to $41.4 million. Without that line, commercial service was mixed: IoT data rose 4% to $48.7 million, while voice and data fell 3% to $58.0 million and broadband fell 9% to $11.8 million. (Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026)

The U.S. government is Iridium's largest single customer, at 15% of service revenue and nearly all of its engineering and support business. Government service revenue rose 2% to $27.6 million on contractual rate increases in the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) contract, which the U.S. Space Force extended on September 11, 2026 through March 2027 at the same rate. Iridium expects a renewal in 2027. (Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026)

Iridium had 2,696,000 billable subscribers at September 30, 2026, up 6% from 2,542,000, led by commercial IoT, which reached 2,163 thousand subscribers. Each IoT subscriber pays far less: commercial IoT ARPU was $7.63 a month, down from $7.95, against $48 for voice and data and $246 for broadband. (Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026)

Iridium earned $106.9 million, or $0.98 per diluted share, in Q3 2026, against $37.1 million, or $0.35. The increase came primarily from the $103.9 million gain related to the Aireon acquisition. Operating income fell to $31.6 million from $70.1 million. (Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026)

Deal costs explain the drop in operating income. Selling, general and administrative expenses rose $39.4 million, or 111%, mainly because of $21.3 million of transaction costs for the Rocket Lab deal and the Aireon acquisition, plus $10.6 million of higher employee costs and $4.8 million of Aireon costs. Depreciation and amortization rose to $62.1 million from $53.0 million,, and net interest expense to $26.8 million from $22.6 million. With Aireon, Iridium assumed a $154.7 million credit facility and took a $183.4 million loan from the sellers that bears no interest. (Iridium Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 20, 2026; Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026)

Iridium does not report an adjusted EPS. Its non-GAAP measure is operational EBITDA (OEBITDA), which excludes interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, equity method gains and losses, transaction expenses and share-based compensation. OEBITDA was $135.6 million, against $136.6 million, and Iridium says $4.5 million of higher expense from paying annual incentive compensation solely in cash weighed on it. (Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Iridium no longer gives an outlook. Since agreeing to be acquired by Rocket Lab on June 28, 2026, it has said it does not intend to hold earnings calls or to update or provide financial guidance. Under the merger agreement each Iridium share is to be converted into $27.00 in cash plus Rocket Lab common stock set by an exchange ratio. (Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026; Iridium Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 20, 2026)

Stockholders approved the deal on September 24, 2026, with 99.6% of votes cast in favor, and Iridium expects it to close by mid-2027, subject to remaining regulatory approvals. The 10-Q says Iridium expects selling, general and administrative expenses to moderate from Q3 as transaction costs decrease. The board plans to raise the quarterly dividend to $0.16 per share from $0.15 starting with the Q4 2026 dividend. (Iridium Q3 2026 earnings release, Oct 20, 2026; Iridium Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 20, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Iridium, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Iridium's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning IRDM is on is IRDM a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the IRDM forecast, and what the company does is on the Iridium Communications (IRDM) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Iridium published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.