U.S. company, Viasat, won unconditional antitrust approval from the European Union to acquire Inmarsat, a UK satellite company, for $7.3 billion. The European Commission announced this with the assurance that the merger will not affect the competition landscape. Both companies, that compete primarily with Panasonic and Intelsat for Wi-Fi services on long-haul flights, are expected to close the deal by the end of May. Prior to this, in February, the Commission had begun an investigation into this merger, as both companies were considered to be close rivals in providing broadband inflight connectivity services both in Europe and globally.