The long-expected consolidation amongst major satellite players is happening. California-based Viasat is set to buy London-based Inmarsat for $7.3 billion (€6.3bn) in a cash and shares deal. Inmarsat was taken private in 2019 at $6 billion. Today, Viasat is paying an extra $1.3 billion as management have valued the Net Present Value of synergies at […]
Viasat’s founder and chairman Mark Dankberg, delivering his Keynote address to delegates at the 2021 Satellite Innovation event at Mountain View, California, was highly critical of US and European regulators over their action – or lack of – in terms of Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. Viasat own a growing fleet of geostationary satellites providing […]
Geostationary satellite operator Viasat says it is now supplying Ka-band in-flight connectivity (IFC) across Brazil, which is the world’s third-largest Business Aviation market. The connectivity package includes capacity from London’s Avanti and its Hylas satellites to cover Europe and the MENA regions. In Brazil, Viasat’s says its IFC system will leverage capacity on the Company’s […]
SES CEO Steve Collar, SES’s CEO in an interview on the topic of satellite industry merger activity, admitted that he was sure that “everyone’s talking to everyone”. Collar added, in the interview carried by Bloomberg, that because Space is “essentially a fixed-cost industry, so the scale that’s generated from consolidation can be important financially. And […]
Investment bank Jefferies has updated its trading model for California-based satellite operator Viasat, and upgraded its revenue forecasts for Viasat (by 10.8 percent per annum) for the period 2021-2024. As to the share price, Jefferies has upped the price target from $46 per share to a much more buoyant $57.50 (and even to $60 on […]
Arrested Industries (fka Fugitive) is delighted to announce the addition of two new SVPs to its expanding business. Judy Levenson joins as SVP sales, overseeing unscripted and scripted content sales in North America, while Mette Kanne-Behrendsen becomes Arrested’s SVP of acquisitions, focusing on unscripted content. Based in the US, Levenson is a highly regarded international […]
Broadband satellite operator Viasat of California already has a solid client list for its connectivity, including private customers, businesses and airlines. In reporting its Q1/2022 numbers to (June 30), it says that the gradual and fitful re-opening of the global economy is accelerating the momentum the company achieved in the later stages of FY/2021. “We […]
A French high court has ruled against Eutelsat in its action against Inmarsat and Inmarsat’s hybrid satellite and terrestrial-based European Aviation Network (EAN). Eutelsat has had the action running since 2018 and objected to the use of terrestrial ground segment repeaters which it argued did not conform with Inmarsat’s S-band licence from the European Commission. […]
ViaSat has agreed a contract to equip fractional jet ownership business Flexjet’s fleet with ViaSat’s In Flight Connectivity and broadband entertainment system (IFC). “This partnership,” says ViaSat, “is two-fold: it will provide Viasat’s high-speed Ka-band IFC service on Flexjet’s Embraer Praetor 600 super-mid cabin fleet, which serves transatlantic and domestic European routes; additionally, the partnership […]
OneWeb has formally applied for a licence to operate over India. The problem is that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, ViaSat and others are seeking or will be seeking the same permissions. India could auction off the broadband satellite frequencies. India’s Financial Express, while confirming the OneWeb move (and OneWeb is part-owned by India’s Bharti Enterprises), […]