ViaSat plans $275M debt offering 

ViaSat plans 275M debt offering

CARLSBAD, Feb 23, 2012 (Menafn - North County Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --ViaSat Inc. said Wednesday it plans a debt offering of 275 million. The company said it plans to use the money to repay debt and for other purposes, possibly to help buy and launch more satellites.

The senior unsecured notes, due in 2020, will be sold if market demand and other conditions are met. ViaSat will sell the notes to qualified institutional buyers in the United States. The company and the initial purchasers will mutually agree on the interest rate.

Last October, ViaSat's first satellite, ViaSat-1, was launched into geostationary orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazahkstan.

On Tuesday, ViaSat issued a press release about its recently filed lawsuit against Loral Space & Communications, and its subsidiary, Space Systems/Loral, which built ViaSat-1. ViaSat said the Loral companies illegally provided its satellite technology to other companies, including competitors.

At the time, a spokeswoman for Space Systems/Loral said the company didn't break the law, and hoped to settle the dispute in negotiations. But on Wednesday, ViaSat president and chief operating officer Rick Baldridge said those talks had failed.

"We have been clear with SS/L that any settlement discussions would need to progress expeditiously, given the high stakes involved and the fact that we put SS/L on notice of these issues long ago," Baldridge said in a ViaSat press release.

"Unfortunately, those discussions didn't progress at all, so we are moving forward with the litigation."

Call staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at 760-739-6641.

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