The story
Viasat was founded in May 1986 by Mark Dankberg, Mark Miller and Steve Hart, who had previously worked at the satellite communications company Linkabit. The company initially focused on communications equipment for defense customers. Viasat held its initial public offering in December 1996 and began trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol VSAT.
Between 2000 and 2002, Viasat acquired the satellite networking business of Scientific Atlanta, satellite network terminal operations formerly belonging to Comsat Laboratories, and US Monolithics. The acquisitions expanded the company's commercial satellite communications business.
In 2009, Viasat agreed to acquire satellite internet provider WildBlue Communications for approximately $568 million in cash and stock. The acquisition was completed in December 2009, giving Viasat an established residential satellite internet business ahead of the launch of ViaSat-1.
Viasat announced an agreement to acquire British satellite operator Inmarsat in November 2021. The transaction underwent competition and national-security reviews in several jurisdictions before Viasat completed the acquisition on May 30, 2023. Viasat paid approximately $550.7 million in cash and issued 46.36 million shares as consideration for Inmarsat.
Before completing the Inmarsat transaction, Viasat sold its Link 16 Tactical Data Links business to L3Harris for approximately $1.96 billion in January 2023.
From Wikipedia’s article on Viasat (American company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7