Thread regarding ViaSat Inc. layoffs

The Sky Is Not Falling

This sale is merely a group of Canadian funds that had an ownership stake in Inmarsat when it was private company.

Prior to going private in 2021, Inmarsat was a públic company traded on stock exchanges.

By going private, these funds had no way of liquidating their position

In June 2023 at the close of the Viasat Inmarsat merger, 14 months ago, these same funds received cash AND those 11.2 millon shares.

There is a “lockup” period of one year where they could not sell their shares. See SEC Rule 144.

14 months later (yesterday) those funds could finally liquidate (waited for the quarterly earnings call to complete too) and get the rest of the proceeds from the merger sale.

These guys were going to sell their shares after one year whether the price was $20 or $200. They already made their money through the cash consideration and were then waiting to get that second piece of 11.2 million shares placed in their brokerage accounts. A teachers pension fund has no business holding a large stake in Space Stocks! Their goal is to create low risk low rate returns in the most boring manner possible to pay retired teachers in their 60s 70s and 80s.

Now, they sold their shares between $20 and $20.50 per share to other institutions whose risk profile is more appropriate. The sky is not falling!

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| 1391 views | | 17 replies (last August 28)
Post ID: @OP+1u0Q918Z

17 replies (most recent on top)

That only shows they found a bigger id--t to sell it off to.

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Post ID: @ejpf+1u0Q918Z

109 dislikes for stating hedge funds did a private sale of shares to other hedge funds. That means other hedge funds want to own the shares at $20 per share.

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Post ID: @erkq+1u0Q918Z

Privatization was done prior covid with strong hopes on airline and business aviation ka-band gx connectivity - the pe funds made good money while they were owning inmarsat (can’t disclose the details) + inmarsat was managed in a very disciplined way (with a lean organisation with minimal overlaps) meeting always financial targets (but was very risk averse)

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Post ID: @6mwd+1u0Q918Z

Competition is heating up...

Guru joined the wrong team. Think of all the political helping the world propaganda he could make out of this!

https://nairametrics.com/2024/08/16/elon-musks-starlink-is-building-ground-stations-in-lagos-ogun-and-rivers-state-to-boost-connectivity/?amp=1

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Post ID: @4wcm+1u0Q918Z

Inmarsat is regretting being acquired by viasat. If they had waited it out a bit longer, they could have been the ones to acquire viasat after the vs3 disaster, but then why would they want to?

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Post ID: @1ydq+1u0Q918Z

They bailed because of the future outlook. Yes there are internal reasons why they might liquidate their holding, even at a loss. But it is far more likely that they have zero confidence in the stock as long-term hold. No point in just seeing the investment decline month-on-month but it is no surprise tbh…I recall an ISAT all-hands where our CEO at the time expressed serious concern on the downward trend of Viasat stock price after the acquisition announcement…and that would have been a view shared by the ISAT board including OTPP 2 years ago. Nothing has changed apart from the increased negative delta V on the stock.

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Post ID: @1ffd+1u0Q918Z

But the stok is falling

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Post ID: @1jic+1u0Q918Z

Prehaps the board should stop the issuence of shares/RSUs/options to all senior executives

Whats the worse that would happen? The current crop of execs leave? And?

Likely a net benefit to where we are now.

Does each T2 have a strategy and plan? If not why not? I know a couple who rarely hold townhalls, people never hear from them!

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Post ID: @eln+1u0Q918Z

Another hit to share holders, but no consequences for management. Equity compensation is supposed to motivate people to make the stock do well, but when you get a sh-t ton of money no matter what it doesn't work.

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Post ID: @hrl+1u0Q918Z

Oh good, so our jobs are safe then?

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Post ID: @aqj+1u0Q918Z

Indeed they have the same tax loss plan for vsat as I do. Use vsat rsu/espp share losses to soak up profits from the winners. In the end they cut their losses at 50-60%. I guess MD and GG can be useful for something. #winning?

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Post ID: @nev+1u0Q918Z

And? The Net Asset Value of the Ontario Pension Plan Fund was $247.5 Billion at the end of 2023. They have multiple holdings across Land, Real Estate, Government Securities, Publicly traded shares, and Private Equity.

Their Share in all of this was 2.81 Million shares. Vaued at $132 Million at time of Merger close on May 31, 2023.

They sold those same shares for $56.2 Million.

My point is this isn't even a drop in the bucket for them. The sale could have been done for a number of reasons. Tax loss planning or Private equity fund requirements (their stake in Inmarsat started there) to name two.

Agreed, that this had been planned a long time and likely always intended to sell once the lockup period was over. Regardless of price.

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Post ID: @oae+1u0Q918Z

There is a form of obfuscation in your post. Regardless of how the value was divided between cash and stock, the deal for the Inmarsat shareholders was for approximately $7billion. It's not enough to say "they got $430million cash plus stock sale" when in fact that represents a significant loss. On May 31 2023 at close, VSAT stock was worth $47 and it's been downhill ever since. Those 11.2 million shares were booked at $526million at close (completely independent of the $206million cash they booked at close), they are now selling those shares for $225million. Further, these large institutional sales don't just happen out of the blue. They typically involve advanced discussions and coordination with the board to avoid surprises. A sale of this size was known to lead to negative impacts to the stock, MD and GG couldn't keep them in the fold with the dream and the mythical beast and whatever. They chose to take almost a 50% haircut on their stock value to just walk away.

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Post ID: @hqk+1u0Q918Z

Inmarsat shareholders received $850 million in cash and 46.36 million viasat shares as part of the merger deal.

So those 11.24 million shares sold of the 46.436 million granted to former inmarsat shareholders (that would be 24% of the Inmarsat merger shares).

Meaning those shareholders had already received $205.75 Million in Cash. And now are getting another $225 million in cash from the share sales at $20-$20.50 per share. That's $430.75 Million in total proceeds from the merger.

I wouldn't call that "allergic" to money. If you include the cash proceeds it would be as if they got over $40 per share sold.

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Post ID: @noj+1u0Q918Z

Got it. They are allergic to money.

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Post ID: @fyj+1u0Q918Z

They were willing to take a 20% hit to get their money out immediately.

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Post ID: @det+1u0Q918Z

"teachers pension fund has no business holding a large stake in Space Stocks!"

So why did they buy Inmarsat in the first place ?

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Post ID: @jew+1u0Q918Z

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