Page 61 - SAMENA Trends - May 2020

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Justice Department Requires CPI to Divest Antenna Business to Complete
Acquisition

The U.S. Justice Department said that it is requiring but Justice Department documents say that the agreed purchase
Communications and Power Industries LLC (CPI) to divest its price is $175 million. The Justice Department said that without
ASC Signal Division for the company to proceed with its planned CPI’s divestiture of ASC Signal, there would be “substantially”
acquisition of the satellite communications technologies business less competition for large geostationary satellite antennas in the
of General Dynamics. CPI’s deal for General Dynamics SATCOM U.S. It says that the two companies are the only two “significant”
Technologies was announced last August and was expected to domestic suppliers of the large antennas and that the U.S. Defense
close during 2019. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed at the time Department and other customers “prefer to avoid having foreign
suppliers for components in the transmission chain for sensitive
national security-related information.” As structured, the deal
would give CPI a monopoly on the antennas in the U.S., Justice
Department said. “The merger, as originally structured, would
have eliminated competition for large geostationary satellite
antennas, an essential component of government, military,
and commercial satellite communication networks,” Makan
Delrahim, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s
Antitrust Division, said in a statement. “Today’s settlement will
ensure that the Department of Defense and other purchasers of
large geostationary satellite antennas continue to benefit from
vigorous competition in the design, manufacture, and sale of these
products.” A spokeswoman for CPI told Defense Daily that the
company “is taking the necessary steps to close expeditiously”
on the acquisition of GD SATCOM Technologies. CPI had $500
million in sales in 2019 and GD’s SATCOM Technologies had
between $200 million and $300 million in revenue last year. CPI is
a portfolio company of Odyssey Investment Partners.

India’s Vestaspace Technology Plans for Constellation of 5G Satellites

Vestaspace Technology, an Indian small Tech. LLC. The company wants to replace video of with less than 34 ms latency with
satellite manufacturing company, released traditional fiber networks with satellite the speed of more than 400 Mbps. “Our
plans on Tuesday to launch a constellation constellations and to provide high-speed Advanced AI-technology based unmanned
of 35 or more satellites across India 5G network connections across India. satellites data will bring in-depth solutions
with the intention of building 5G speed To this end, it said it has installed eight to the telecom industry and the common
network connections and Internet of ground stations and 31,000 data receptors people,” Vestaspace Technology Founder
Things (IoT) functionalities. The company across India. In the company’s concept and CEO Arun Kumar Sureban said. “We are
says it will release a beta version of the of services, any person can uplink and on a mission to make space accessible to
next-generation satellite constellations downlink data while browsing the internet everyone who once thought satellites were
in September, in early 2021, launch its by buying a token or directly partnering with rocket science. Not only this, through our
satellites into Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and Vestaspace. Vestaspace touts test results secured connections a common person
Geostationary Orbit (GEO). Vestaspace with accurate antenna, tracking, seamless can also access to the satellites of their
said it recently secured $10 million in beam and satellite handovers, which choice and to get immersed in the world of
funding from U.S.-based Next Capital resulted in reflected in a live-streamed HD space.”

61 MAY 2020