Panasonic Avionics Corporation has acquired a majority stake in in-flight broadband provider AeroMobile from its sole owner Norwegian telecoms incumbent Telenor Group.
Panasonic Avionics is not disclosing the financial details of the transaction….
Panasonic Avionics Corporation has acquired a majority stake in in-flight broadband provider AeroMobile from its sole owner Norwegian telecoms incumbent Telenor Group.
Panasonic Avionics is not disclosing the financial details of the transaction. AeroMobile was not available for comment at the time of going to press.
The two companies have had a commercial partnership since 2008 with AeroMobile developing in-flight GSM and L-band network services that have been marketed by Panasonic through its eXConnect and eXPhone services.
Commenting on the transaction, Pål Bjørdal, AeroMobile’s president and chief executive said, “We believe that this arrangement demonstrates the importance of this business both to Telenor and Panasonic, and by taking an active ownership position, Panasonic is clearly demonstrating its commitment to supporting this business in the future.”
The deal is quite a turn around for AeroMobile, coming as it does approximately two years after the UK-based company exited administration.
Formed in 2003 as a 50-50 joint venture between Telenor and US-based aviation communications company Arinc, AeroMobile was placed into administration in December 2009 with BDO appointed to lead the restructuring process. Telenor then bought the company outright despite already owning approximately 99.85% of the company prior to administration. Sources told SatelliteFinance at the time that the reason for the process was connected to the need to get rid of certain obligations and contracts Telenor had with Arinc under the joint venture agreement.
Over the past few years Panasonic has sought to ramp up its in-flight broadband services after a series of delays to its commercial launch in the wake of the failure of Connexion-by-Boeing. On the same day as the AeroMobile announcement, Panasonic revealed that it had signed additional capacity deals with Intelsat, via the Intelsat-14 satellite, and Australian Satellite Communications, on the GE23 satellite, for its Global Communications Service.
Panasonic stated that on closing, AeroMobile will continue to operate as an independent company.
