Inmarsat has acquired Scottish satcoms services firm NewWave Broadband for US$9m in cash.
NewWave is the main distribution and maintenance partner of Norwegian maritime VSAT service provider Ship Equip, which Inmarsat bought last year. With the NewWave…
Inmarsat has acquired Scottish satcoms services firm NewWave Broadband for US$9m in cash.
NewWave is the main distribution and maintenance partner of Norwegian maritime VSAT service provider Ship Equip, which Inmarsat bought last year. With the NewWave deal, Inmarsat is ploughing ahead with its vertical integration strategy, tidying up loose ends before the 2013/2014 launch of its next generation Ka-band constellation called Global Xpress.
Ship Equip was acquired in April 2011 for US$159.5m, increasing Inmarsat’s VSAT customer base, which it anticipates will later transfer to its Global Xpress portfolio. US contractor Boeing is currently manufacturing the three 702HP Ka-band spacecraft that will form this new constellation.
The NewWave deal also shortly follows the announcement on 1 January of Inmarsat’s new organisational structure, drawn up to align its business more closely to core vertical market segments.
Under this new structure, the company created its Inmarsat Solutions division, responsible for global direct and indirect sales and marketing delivery. This unit is split into four new market-facing business units: Inmarsat Government Global, Inmarsat Government US, Inmarsat Enterprise, and the Inmarsat Maritime unit that includes Ship Equip’s operations and, presumably, soon those of NewWave too.
Inmarsat stressed that despite the alignment of its direct and indirect sales activities into business units, it does not plan to stop distributing services primarily through independent channel partners, consisting of its network of distribution partners and service providers.
