Carlsbad satellite Internet provider Viasat expects to complete its pending buyout of rival Inmarsat this month — bulking up the combined companies' competitive position amid stiff competition in the satellite broadband market.
Viasat Chief Executive Mark Dankberg outlined the expected time frame of the Inmarsat deal during a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Wednesday for its fiscal fourth quarter and full-year financial results.
In late 2021, Viasat agreed to pay $850 million in cash, issue 46.3 million shares of stock and assume $3.4 billion in debt to acquire London-based Inmarsat. Those terms today value the acquisition at $6 billion. It has been bogged down in regulatory review but now is close to clearing those hurdles, although Viasat executives acknowledged that there were still a lot of "moving parts" related to the financing.
