Full Description

DigitalGlobe, Inc. (DigitalGlobe), incorporated on September 30, 1994, is a global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery products and services. DigitalGlobe owns and operates two imagery satellites. Together, its satellites are capable of collecting approximately one million square kilometers of imagery per day. This imagery is added daily to its ImageLibrary, which houses approximately 660 million square kilometers of high-resolution earth imagery as of March 31, 2009. The Company’s solutions support a variety of uses, such as defense and intelligence initiatives, mapping and analysis, environmental monitoring, oil and gas exploration, and infrastructure management. It offers a range of on- and off-line distribution options designed to enable customers to access and integrate its imagery into their business operations and applications. The Company has been operating the QuickBird satellite and associated ground processing systems to generate 61-centimeters resolution black and white and color products, and 2.44-meter, multi-spectral products.

DigitalGlobe conducts its business through two segments: defense and intelligence, and commercial. The Company’s imagery products and services comprises of imagery that it process to varying levels according to the customer’s specifications. Its principal source of revenue is the licensing of its earth imagery products and services to end users and resellers. Its principal customers include the United States and foreign defense and intelligence agencies, and a variety of commercial customers, such as Internet portals, companies in the energy, telecommunications, utility and agricultural industries, and Unites States and foreign civil agencies.

Defense and Intelligence

DigitalGlobe’s defense and intelligence segment consists of customers who are principally defense and intelligence agencies of United States or foreign governments. The United States government, through National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), purchases its imagery products and services under the NextView agreement on behalf of various agencies within the United States government. Other United States defense and intelligence customers include defense and intelligence contractors, such as Harris Corporation and Lockheed Martin Corporation. Defense and intelligence contractors provide an additional outlet for its imagery by adding value to its imagery by combining it with other information to deliver a final product to a customer. NGA accounted for approximately 73.9% of revenue during the year ended December 31, 2008.

Commercial

The Company’s commercial business consists of both traditional customers, primarily civil governments, and energy, telecommunications, utility and agricultural companies that use its content for mapping, monitoring, analysis and planning activities, and customers that add the Company’s content to enhance and expand the information products and services that they develop and sell to the commercial market. Most of its traditional commercial customers purchase imagery products and services on an as-needed basis, either from the ImageLibrary or by placing tasking orders. During 2008, the Company’s top five commercial customers accounted for 39.7% of its commercial revenue.