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back to article International investors gobble up Brit satellite specialist Inmarsat

British satellite communications specialist Inmarsat will be taken private by a consortium of international investors in a deal worth $3.4bn (£2.6bn). World with light lines representing connectivity connecting various foci on the globe. Pic via Shutterstock Azure IoT heads spacewards to maintain connectivity at the edge, …

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  1. James Anderson Silver badge

    Where does the money go?

    It would not be so bad if these billions were invested in new tech start ups, or, invested in promising research.

    But I think it will mostly go to lining the pockets of M&A advisors and fund managers.

    The U.K. is one of the hardest places to get startup funding. The US has risk taking fund managers the Europeans generous government subsidies. The U.K. has a financial services sector dedicated to paying itself large bonuses and a tight fisted government.

    As soon as this pub closes.........

    14 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So do the buyers not expect a currency and/or stock exchange "correction" after brexit, or they getting in ahead of the rush ?

    3 1 Reply
    1. Lexeus
      Reply Icon

      Pension schemes are perfect investors here, with large stacks of cash sitting around and only interested in long term steady cash returns. The satellite industry is about as non-reliant on the British pound as you can get, I imagine most clients pay in USD. So yes getting in ahead of the rush, or perhaps they just think that in the current climate they are undervalued to start with and the pension funds like everyone else at the moment are not sure where they can safely put their money. Government bonds certainly aren't going to pay those pensions!

      4 0 Reply
    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Or they are buying pounds at next month's prices with a futurea contract

      0 0 Reply
  3. SkippyBing

    Triton Bidco is planning to expand the Inmarsat business worldwide

    More worldwide than global satellite communications?

    10 0 Reply
    1. Frumious Bandersnatch
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      Re: Triton Bidco is planning to expand the Inmarsat business worldwide

      Brexit warps the very fabric of reality. Phrases like "worldwide" and "global" are now merely part of a higher-dimension Klein-continuum.

      (hehe... get your head around that)

      0 0 Reply
  4. Starace
    Alert

    Let me guess...

    The ultimate plan is to forget all the fine pre-takeover words, load the company with debt, extract the resulting money via various routes then dump the dying husk?

    Or has the game changed recently?

    10 0 Reply
  5. Furbian

    "Inmarsat has long carried the mantle of a designated British tech success"

    ... and yet its share price has been in the toilet for years, worst investment I have made in the last ten years, and the only loss I'll book since if the takeover is finalised. That's from £11 in 2016 to £5.50 today,

    My sadness at ARM's passing was tempered by having been a longer term investor in paying off well just weeks after the Brexit vote. Oh the Brexit angle, I'll leave that to someone else to state "Dan Ridsdale, analyst at Edison Investment Research, said "An increase in inbound merger and acquisition activity was one of the obvious consequences of Brexit and weakened sterling, but few expected it to manifest itself so quickly or at so large a scale."". Oh and didn't vote out.

    1 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    With several firms attempting to put up Internet (likely successful) satellite clusters numbering in the thousands, is taking Inmarsat private a reasonable idea? No, max competition approaching so the goal must be asset stripping.

    1 0 Reply
  7. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    "...Canada Pension Plan Investment..."

    Yay!

    0 0 Reply
  8. Amused Bystander

    #brexitfiresale - Everything must go

    0 0 Reply

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