Liberty/EchoStar, Loral Submit Intelsat Bids
BC Partners Also Bids; Providence Equity Partners, Carlyle Group, Macquarie Bank May Follow Suit
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 6/17/2007 7:23:00 AM
Liberty Media and EchoStar Communications submitted a joint bid for Intelsat, and Loral Space & Communications is also in the auction, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
That means, in essence, that three satellite companies are among those vying for Intelsat, the world’s largest operator of commercial satellites.
Liberty is acquiring a large stake in DirecTV, the biggest direct-broadcast satellite operator and a rival to EchoStar’s Dish Network. Liberty’s and EchoStar’s joint offer for Intelsat signals the two competing companies’ increasing efforts to band together in some arenas.
The Journal also reported that European private-equity group BC Partners bid for Intelsat, and that Providence Equity Partners, Carlyle Group and Macquarie Bank cold enter the fray later.
Intelsat is expected to draw bids of $4.5 billion-$5.5 billion.
If Liberty and EchoStar do have the winning Intelsat bid, it’s expected to raise antitrust issues. Intelsat’s 51 birds deliver video and voice around the world, and they also distribute programming domestically for a large cadre of cable networks, such as HBO. Even the nation’s largest cable company, Comcast, is a client of Intelsat.
Comcast declined to comment last week, but it remains to be seen if cable companies sit silently by as their two DBS rivals, which beam TV programming directly to consumers, try to purchase the largest purveyor of fixed-satellite services, a wholesaler.
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