GM
General Motors Company
stock NYSE

Rocket Lab agreed to buy Iridium [for $8 billion](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rocket-lab-to-acquire-iridium-in-historic-deal-creating-a-fully-vertically-integrated-space-powerhouse-primed-for-growth-302813075.html) this week, the major third space consolidation move this quarter after Amazon's Globalstar deal and the SpaceX IPO.
It looks to me like there's a pattern emerging similar to the mid-1990s car industry that birthed Ford, GM, or early-2000s tech that led to today's Google and Amazon: the industry is collapsing toward two or three vertically integrated giants that can fund launch, manufacturing, and constellations all at once, and the smaller players that own a single hard-to-replicate capability end up as acquisition targets instead of standalone businesses.
Frequency Electronics is the least glamorous version of that idea, which is why I think it holds up.
FEIM makes space-qualified atomic clocks and oscillators, the precision timing layer underneath every satellite constellation, GPS program, and position-navigation-and-timing system.
It's a boring, mission-critical niche with real qualification barriers, the kind of supplier a prime would rather buy than build.
Rocket Lab has spent four years running exactly this playbook, most recently pulling [the laser-comms maker Mynaric](https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/rocket-lab-announces-intention-to-acquire-mynaric-leading-laser-communications-provider-in-latest-strategic-step-toward-becoming-an-end-to-end-space-company/) out of a German restructuring for its tech and its engineers, so this isn't hypothetical.
The fundamentals are further along than most space small-caps. FEI closed its fiscal year with [backlog over $100 million for the first time](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/04/30/3285425/7746/en/Frequency-Electronics-Inc-Announces-Three-Year-Revenue-Target-of-At-Least-150-Million.html) and set a target of at least $150 million in revenue by fiscal 2029, which would more than double where it is now.
It's debt-free.
In March it won [a contract for atomic clocks on a lunar mission](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/03/25/3262236/7746/en/Frequency-Electronics-Inc-Announces-Space-Mission-Contract-Award-Valued-at-Approximately-7-million.html), and rising GPS-jamming concerns are pushing demand for alternative PNT and better clocks across the board. For a roughly $600 million company, that's a credible multi-year growth story tied to how much more timing hardware is heading to orbit.
Of course being an acquisition target is not the same as being a good investment on its own merits. [Lockheed Martin bought Terran Orbital](https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2024-08-15-Lockheed-Martin-to-Acquire-Terran-Orbital) last year for $0.25 a share, a 37.5% discount to the prior close and a sliver of where it came public via SPAC. Terran was a satellite maker its own investors had pushed to find a buyer, and the bid that finally came rescued the company, not the shareholders.
FEI is in far better financial shape than Terran ever was, but the stock has already run about 215% in a year and trades near 9x sales, so a lot of the takeout-and-growth optionality already looks priced in. Revenue is lumpy quarter to quarter by management's own admission, and the float is under 10 million shares, so it whips around on single contract headlines.
So really I'm bouncing between whether the qualification-barrier moat is strong enough to justify the multiple here, or if this a good business on its own merits, at a price that already bakes in the acquisition premium? Would also like to know if anyone has dug into how concentrated FEI's customer base is, since that cuts both ways for a takeout case.
Position: Watching, no position (yet)

Wait, GM Markets is new to me. Is the withdrawal actually smooth or is it one of those "easy to deposit, impossible to get money out" situations?

**Tried 5 platforms for buying US stocks with USDC.**
Ondo and GM Markets were the only ones that worked well for small trades. Ondo has more stocks and better liquidity, but spreads widen on smaller names. GM (still in beta) had lower fees and tighter spreads for me, though the app needs polish.
xStocks was easy to use but I found the dividend/rebasing system confusing. Dinari’s KYC was a dealbreaker as a non US user. Interactive Brokers is solid, but fees and FX only make sense for larger investments.
For small stablecoin trades, I’d pick Ondo for selection or GM for lower costs.

also I have started using GM markets for that they convert it to USDC and USDT and because of that a lot of things get way easier...

Is it Socialist for the US to offer government aid but demand a stake in the company in return to protect taxpayers from loss?
I don't see it as any different than what the Obama Administration did with GM and Chrysler. Except Intel, TSMC, Samsung and Micron aren't in financial trouble.

How does Costco pivot from bulk selling when the average family size shrinking?
Kroger has obviously tried (and fumbled) the GM and Membership avenues, but they succeeded in the fuel station arena. Honestly don't understand whey they spun off the Kwik Shops, but most stores have pumps in their lots nowadays so maybe it was a natural pivot.
Anyways, fascinating stuff. Thanks for the views on Costco's successes.