News Analysis

Ottawa, Canada, Feb. 7, 2014--Canadian Industry Minister James Moore unveiled a new plan to develop the country's space industry, in a bid to safeguard Canada's "sovereignty, security and prosperity." Moore said Canada's Space Policy Framework will serve as a guideline for the country's strategic space activities, and ensure the commercial competitiveness of the Canadian space industry in the future.

Kourou, French Guiana, February 6, 2014--The ABS-2 satellite was successfully launched  at 6:30  p.m. Kourou time today. The satellite was launched on an Ariane ECA launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Center.

London, UK, February 6, 2014-- Arqiva announced today the acquisiton of Capablue, the Connected TV, video-on-demand and content solution provider. The two companies already have a relationship, having partnered on solutions including the development of pay capabilities for the Arqiva Connect TV platform.

St. Louis, MO, February 6, 2014-- Belden has submitted a binding offer to purchase privately held Grass Valley, a leader within the broadcast market, for US$ 220 million. The binding offer is subject to consultation with Grass Valley’s foreign labor works council. Grass Valley provides innovative technologies including production switchers, cameras, servers, and editing solutions within the mission critical applications of broadcast customers.

Stockholm, Sweden, February 6, 2014--Ericsson today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Massachusetts-based Azuki Systems, Inc., a provider of TV Anywhere delivery platforms for service providers, content owners and broadcasters.

Atlanta, GA, February 5, 2014--Wegener today announced that it will be acquired by Novra Technologies in an all stock transaction. This transaction is subject to Novra's due diligence, the approval of Wegener Corporation shareholders, and other terms and conditions. Wegener Corporation previously announced that the Board of Directors had unanimously approved a Term Sheet for the acquisition. Novra Technologies, Inc. will also acquire privately held Westport Research Associates, Inc. of Raytown, MO.

London, UK, February 4, 2014--Inmarsat today announced that Inmarsat-5 F1, the first in its fleet of three Global Xpress (GX) satellites, has successfully completed its orbital deployment stages on schedule.  Inmarsat and Boeing engineers, working from Inmarsat’s GX teleport in Nemea, Greece, are now beginning a month of comprehensive payload testing, in preparation for commencing live end-to-end testing of the high-speed, mobile broadband GX connectivity services, scheduled to start in March.

Houston, Tex., February 3, 2014--RigNet has completed a strategic transaction with Inmarsat involving the sale of substantially all of Inmarsat's Energy Broadband business to RigNet and the appointment of RigNet as a Value Added Reseller of Inmarsat's Global Xpress (GX) service and as a Distribution Partner for Inmarsat's L-band services to the energy sector worldwide.RigNet has acquired Inmarsat's Energy Broadband business for US$25 million in cash.

Geneva, Switzerland, February 3, 2014-- Satellite communications specialist Newtec and the operator of the world’s largest satellite and fiber live video network, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), have signed a multimillion-euro contract. The deal is to deploy Newtec’s satellite broadcast solutions as part of the EBU’s major pan-European news exchange network.

Izegem, Belgium, February 3, 2014 – Skyline Communications, a provider of end-to-end multi-vendor network management solutions for the IPTV, satellite, HFC broadband and broadcast industry, announced record sales figures for 2013 at its annual employee event last week. The company reported that it has achieved revenue growth averaging 25% per year in the last ten years.