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Related Party Transactions
 9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2023
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]  
Related Party Transactions
10. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Thermo is the principal owner and largest stockholder of Globalstar. The Company's Executive Chairman of the Board controls Thermo. Two other members of the Company's Board of Directors are also directors, officers or minority equity owners of various Thermo entities.

Payables to Thermo related to normal purchase transactions were $0.2 million and $0.3 million as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively.

Transactions with Thermo 

Certain general and administrative expenses are incurred by Thermo on behalf of the Company. These expenses include: i) non-cash expenses, such as stock compensation costs as well as costs recorded as a contribution to capital as they relate to services provided by certain executive officers of Thermo, and ii) expenses incurred by Thermo on behalf of the Company that are charged to the Company; these charges are based on actual amounts (with no mark-up) incurred by Thermo or upon allocated employee time. 

The Company has a lease agreement with Thermo Covington, LLC for the Company's headquarters office. Annual lease payments increase at a rate of 2.5% per year. 2023 lease payments will be $1.6 million. The lease term is ten years and will expire in January 2029. During each of the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, the Company incurred lease expense of $1.2 million under this lease agreement.

To fulfill its obligations under the Service Agreements, in November 2022, the Company entered into an Exchange Agreement with Thermo and certain other exchanging lenders providing for the exchange of all the outstanding principal amount of, and accrued and unpaid interest on, the exchanging lenders’ loans under the 2019 Facility Agreement for shares of the Company's Series A Preferred Stock. The terms of the Exchange Agreement were reviewed and approved by the Company's Board of Directors and Audit Committee. Thermo's ownership portion in the Series A Preferred Stock is $136.7 million. Holders of Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to receive, when, as and if declared by our Board of Directors, cumulative cash dividends based on the liquidation preference of the Series A Preferred Stock, at a fixed rate equal to 7.00% per annum, payable quarterly in arrears on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 of each year. During 2023, the Company paid Thermo dividends of $1.2 million for the period November 15, 2022 through December 31, 2022 and $2.4 million for each of the first, second and third quarters of 2023.

Also in connection with the Service Agreements, Partner and Thermo entered into a lock-up and right of first offer agreement that generally (i) requires Thermo to offer any shares of Globalstar common stock to Partner before transferring them to any other Person other than affiliates of Thermo and (ii) prohibits Thermo from transferring shares of Globalstar common stock if such transfer would cause Thermo to hold less than 51.00% of the outstanding common stock of the Company for a period of five years from the launch of Services in November 2022.

Amounts payable by the Company in connection with the 2023 Funding Agreement are expected to be guaranteed by Thermo under a guarantee agreement among Thermo, the Company and the Partner. Thermo has agreed to provide support of certain of the Company’s obligations under the 2023 Funding Agreement. Currently this support agreement is directly between Thermo and Partner, and the parties have agreed to replace it with an agreement between Thermo, the Company and the Partner. Entry into this guarantee agreement received shareholder approval in June 2023, and it is expected to be effective during the fourth quarter of 2023. As consideration for Thermo's guarantee, the Company will issue to Thermo warrants to purchase 10.0 million shares of the Company’s common stock at an exercise price equal to $2.00 per share (as calculated pursuant to the agreement). 5.0 million of these warrants vest immediately upon effectiveness of Thermo's guarantee, which is expected to occur during the fourth quarter of 2023, and the remaining 5.0 million warrants vest if and when Thermo advances aggregate funds of $25.0 million or more to the Company or a permitted third party pursuant to the terms of Thermo's guarantee. These warrants expire five years after the date of issuance.

See Note 6: Long-Term Debt and Other Financing Arrangements for further discussion of the Company's debt and financing transactions with Thermo.
In connection with the XCOM transaction, a portion of the Stock Consideration was resold by XCOM to certain long-term investors of Globalstar and XCOM (the “Resale Purchasers”), including Thermo, in private resale transactions exempt from registration under the Securities Act. Together with shares it received for release of debt owed to it by Licensor, Thermo acquired 4.2 million total shares. See Note 2: License Agreement for further discussion.