Off Topic: industry related. Internet services via sky
Friday May 7, 5:33 am Eastern Time
Lockheeddeal part of wider strategy - WSJ
NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp.'s (LMT - news) plans to
build a satellite system, announced on
Thursday, fit into a larger strategy aimed at revitalising the struggling defence contractor,
the Wall Street Journal reported on
Friday.
The newspaper, quoting Lockheed executives, said the idea was to stockpile assets into
Lockheed's telecommunications unit and
eventually split off part of it.
Lockheed's new unit, Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, and two partners
announced on Thursday that they would develop a $3.6 billion satellite
venture designed to supply broadband services to Internet companies. TRW Inc (TRW
- news) and a unit of Telecom Italia will kick in $250 million each to the
project, known as Astrolink LLC.
The Journal reported that Lockheed would eventually spin off a portion of the subsidiary
through an initial public offering by 2001, according to John Montague, the
subsidiary's chief financial officer.
Lockheed created the unit last summer. Since then, the subsidiary has grabbed headlines
primarily due to its $2.7 billion bid for Comsat Corp. (CQ - news).
The deal must clear several regulatory hurdles if it is to close by the end of this year, the
newspaper said. |
