spacetoday.net: Loral rejects EchoStar buyout offer

Posted: Fri, Oct 10, 2003, 11:14 AM ET (1514 GMT)

Loral announced late Wednesday that it has rejected an offer from satellite television operator EchoStar to purchase all of Loral's assets. EchoStar had offered $1.85 billion to buy all of Loral’s satellites and other assets, including its Space Systems/Loral satellite manufacturing unit. In a statement Loral chairman and CEO Bernard Schwartz said that EchoStar's offer "undervalues" Loral's assets. Loral filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July and announced at the same time that it would sell six of its satellites serving North America to Intelsat for approximately $1 billion. Since that offer one of the satellites, Telstar 4, failed in orbit. Space News reported Thursday that EchoStar has asked the bankruptcy court overseeing Loral to overturn Loral's rejection of the bid.