After years of the satellite industry’s top brass making the case for consolidation, those dreams are finally playing out across the top operators. While Viasat was the first to take the leap with its Inmarsat bid, much of the industry has since followed suit.
When the acquisition closed last summer, the Carlsbad, California-based business was preparing for global expansion with the trio of ViaSat-3 high capacity satellites that had been in the works for years. U.K.-based Inmarsat brought global coverage to the table, with its fleet of Ka-band and L-band satellites.
What happened next has been well documented. Soon after clearing a lengthy approval process to close the deal in early summer of 2023, Viasat experienced a shocking…