spacetoday.net: Liberty Satellite plans to take over Astrolink

Posted: Fri, Jan 24, 2003, 8:19 AM ET (1319 GMT)
Liberty Satellite and Technology, a company owned by media company Liberty Media, announced Thursday that it has reached an agreement to acquire satellite broadband company Astrolink. Liberty Satellite, which currently owns 31.5% of Astrolink, said it will pay $43 million in cash and $3 million in stock to acquire Astrolink's assets from its other shareholders, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems (formerly TRW), and Telespazio. Once the deal is completed, which is expected to occur by the end of October, Liberty Media will make an investment of up to $55 million in Liberty Satellite. Liberty Satellite said it will pursue a revised business plan for Astrolink, launching Ka-band satellites to provide broadband services for enterprises and government agencies. Astrolink's future had been in doubt since October 2001, when Lockheed Martin announced it would not invest additional funds into the project. The original Astrolink partners had invested approximately $1.4 billion into Astrolink as of late 2001. Astrolink is the latest satellite company Liberty Satellite or its parent has shown an interest in: last month Liberty Satellite was one of the companies investing into Wildblue, another satellite broadband company, while Liberty Media has reportedly been working with News Corporation to make a deal to acquire satellite television companies DirecTV or EchoStar.