Our returning guest on the show today was Mark Dankberg, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Viasat (Ticker: VSAT). Viasat is $3.1 billion dollar market cap company that provides broadband and communication products and services worldwide. Viasat started off as a defense-oriented company but has since layered on consumer and business-facing offerings by developing the world’s leading high throughput geostationary satellites.
Subsequent to our first interview with Mark, Viasat announced its intent to merge with Inmarsat, a UK-based company that provides mobile satellite communications services on land, at sea, and in the air worldwide. Without question, the size and the timing of the deal were a surprise to many of the people in the industry, especially because Viasat was in the middle of preparing to launch 3 new satellites over a short period of time. Given all of that, I was very curious to hear from Mark about:
- Why Viasat decided to acquire Inmarsat versus other potential targets;
- Why Viasat is the right owner of Inmarsat versus other potential buyers;
- Why do the deal now versus waiting until the 3 new satellites had been launched;
- How Inmarsat fits into Viasat’s hybrid network philosophy; and
- How Viasat plans to integrate Inmarsat employees culturally.
Just a few disclosures to note:
- First, Cove Street owns Viasat shares
- Second, Cove Street has done a number of podcasts and interviews specifically on our position in Viasat
Please enjoy the interview at the following sites:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/HTIOiKKP15I
Podbean: https://compounders.podbean.com/e/why-viasat-why-inmarsat-why-now-with-mark-dankberg-co-founder-and-executive-chairman-of-viasat-inc-nasdaq-vsat/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4phom9Jjm3OkhiVuYOYKYt
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-viasat-why-inmarsat-why-now-with-mark-dankberg-co/id1579124518?i=1000551854527
As always, if you have any comments, feedback, or guest recommendations, please contact us at podcast@covestreetcapital.com. You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/CompoundersPod.
If you missed our last Compounders episode with Ramesh Srinivasan, President and CEO of Agilysys, Inc., you can view it here.
Compounders is sponsored by Tegus. With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company on an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 25,000 calls on former Compounders guests such as Viasat, Element Solutions, Avid Technology—or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. If you’re ready to go deeper on any company and you appreciate the value of primary research, head to tegus.co/compounders for a free trial.
