spacetoday.net: Intelsat, Liberty Media to invest in WildBlue

Posted: Tue, Dec 24, 2002, 12:05 PM ET (1705 GMT)
WildBlue Communications, a satellite broadband company that had been in stasis for months, announced Monday that several companies will invest $156 million to restart the company’s work. The major investors will be Intelsat and Liberty Satellite and Technology (LSAT), a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation; the two companies will own over 60 percent of WildBlue after this latest round of investment. Other investors include the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, and WildBlue chairman David Drucker. WildBlue officials said the investment will allow the company to offer satellite broadband services to homes and small businesses starting in 2004. The company will initially use transponders on Telesat Canada's Anik F2 spacecraft, scheduled for launch in late 2003. The company has been building its own spacecraft, WildBlue-1, which the company still plans to complete and launch at a later date. WildBlue's future had been uncertain after EchoStar, an early investor decided earlier this year not to invest further into the company and write off its original $50-million investment, putting WildBlue's work on hold.