Viasat’s Workforce Decimated After Inmarsat Acquisition

Following its acquisition of Inmarsat, Viasat has announced that it is making approximately 800 people redundant from its workforce. This represents about 10% of its employees and will be spread across the business in terms of geographies and divisions.

The company states that it has completed "a rationalization of roles in its global business" in order to achieve operational and cost efficiencies. It also expects to save $100 million in annual expenses as a result of the ongoing integration of Inmarsat. The majority of Viasat's employees will continue to be located in the United States and the UK.

"Since we completed the acquisition of Inmarsat, our focus has been on accelerating our leading role in global mobile satellite communications by converging our technologies and organizational structures to deliver enhanced products and services to our customers," said Guru Gowrappan, president of Viasat.

"We will continue working to better unify our go-to-market approach and maximize operational and capital productivity."

In May 2023, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) approved the acquisition of Inmarsat. At that time, Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO of Viasat, stated, "Additionally, this deal will also create new high-skill technology jobs, deepen Viasat's capabilities in the UK, and ultimately help to deliver the goals of the UK's National Space Strategy."

Under the terms of the $7.3 billion deal, Viasat had given "economic undertakings" to the UK government department BEIS (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). These undertakings included an expansion in the number of high-skilled jobs in key areas, a 30% increase in overall R&D spending in the UK, and the international business headquarters being situated in the UK.

Source: Example News