ViaSat Acquires WildBlue

Rural broadband access got a shot in the arm Thursday through the $568 million acquisition of consumer broadband provider WildBlue Communications by satellite gear producer ViaSat.

The deal will help WildBlue break out from its slowing growth and it will enable ViaSat to enter the consumer market with a hefty 400,000 WildBlue subscribers under its belt.

"WildBlue and ViaSat have been close partners for nearly a decade and today's announcement is the logical next step," said Mark Dankberg, ViaSat's chairman and CEO, in a statement. "By integrating ViaSat-1 and its ground network technology into the WildBlue operational and distribution platform, we believe we can meaningfully reduce our operational execution risks."

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— W. David Gardner, InformationWeek