On May 31, Viasat announced the completion of its acquisition of Inmarsat, announced a year and a half ago, after all regulatory barriers to consolidation of satellite operators had been removed. Viasat’s chairman and CEO, Mark Dankberg, holds the same roles at the combined company. Former Inmarsat CEO Rajiv Suri and company chairman Andy Sukawati become executives on Viasat’s board to represent the private equity group that owns the British satellite operator.

The combined group is headquartered at Viasat’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California. Inmarsat’s London base is the group’s global international business hub. Viasat spokesperson Deb Green said further decisions are being made about the group’s organizational structure and the integration of people, processes and systems.

“There is no set timeline for completion and in an industry as dynamic as ours, the process of adaptation and change will continue,” Green said via email. Regulators in Europe and the UK have looked at the merger, mainly focusing on concerns that it could lead to higher prices and lower quality for in-flight Wi-Fi.

After much research, regulators decided that established players and new entrants like SpaceX’s Starlink would put enough competitive pressure on the expanding group. Viasat and Inmarsat have approximately 8,000 employees and 19 satellites in orbit in the Ka, L and S bands to provide connectivity and security services to the maritime, aerospace, government and consumer markets.

Six of the 19 satellites in their combined fleet are owned by Viasat, including the Anik F2 on a lifetime lease from Telesat. The merger announcement sparked further consolidation plans as operators sought to strengthen their defenses amid a growing threat of competition in the satellite broadband market from Starlink. Eutelsat announced plans to acquire OneWeb in November 2022 and hopes to complete the merger this summer. On March 29, SES and Intelsat confirmed that they are in merger talks, although they have not provided any major updates since then.

finance

Inmarsat shareholders will receive $551 million in cash and shares representing 37.6% of Viasat’s common stock from the deal. The cash portion of the deal was reduced from $850 million after Inmarsat paid a special dividend of $299 million to its shareholders in April 2022.

Viasat said it used a committed financing package of approximately $1.35 billion, which includes borrowing, to support the deal. The combined company has a market capitalization of $5.5 billion and an operating value of $10.9 billion, including $4.5 billion in debt. Source