European Commission clears Viasat's acquisition of Inmarsat

The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Inmarsat by Viasat. The European  Commission concluded that the merger would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area (‘EEA') or any substantial part of it. The decision follows an in-depth investigation of the proposed acquisition of Inmarsat by Viasat. Both companies are providers of ‘two-way' satellite-based communication services. Viasat owns and operates four geostationary earth orbit (‘GEO') satellites and Inmarsat owns and operates fifteen GEO satellites. Inmarsat and Viasat use capacity from their own GEO satellites to provide services in the nascent market for the supply of broadband in-flight connectivity (‘IFC') services to commercial airlines in the EEA and globally. In addition to providing satellite capacity to third-party satellite service providers worldwide, both companies provide satellite services to customers across a range of other industry segments, including in the maritime, energy, government, and business aviation sectors, where overlaps are limited. The European Commission, therefore, concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the EEA or any substantial part of it and cleared the case unconditionally.