Advanced Television

Canadians buy Space Systems/Loral

June 27, 2012

By Chris Forrester

Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates (MDA), best known perhaps for the space technology CanadArm retrieval crane used on the Space Shuttle, is to buy satellite builder Space Systems/Loral (SS/L). MDA will pay over $774 million in cash, plus at least $135 million in other considerations.

The payments will go to SS/L’s parent company Loral Space & Communications, and Loral says the deal is worth overall $1 billion of pre-tax value.  SS/L had revenues last year of $1.1 billion, and has an order book valued at more than $2 billion.

MDA, in a statement, said it expects the deal to close later this year and “to be immediately accretive” helped by SS/L’s strong order book. SS/L holds onto its current litigation responsibilities including those affecting ViaSat.

MDA is headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, while SS/L has its HQ in Palo Alto, California..

Categories: Articles, Business, DTH/Satellite, M&A