SkyTerra purchase of 50% of Direcway completed

April 25, 2005 The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (NYSE:DTV) and SkyTerra Communications, Inc. (OTCBB:SKYT), an affiliate of Apollo Management, L.P., a New York-based private equity firm, today announced the completion of transactions that resulted in SkyTerra acquiring a 50 percent interest in a new entity, Hughes Network Systems LLC (HNS LLC), that in turn had acquired substantially all of the remaining assets of Hughes Network Systems, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The DIRECTV Group.-courtesy Business Wire.
DirecTV Group received about $246 million in cash and 300,000 shares of Sky Terra stock. DirecTV group, as previously stated in an earlier post, will carry the 50% ownership of HNS LLC as an investment and the management of over 1,300 former HNS employees will be handled by SkyTerra.
“Today, with the completion of our new ownership structure, we start an exciting new chapter in the history of our company,” said Pradman Kaul, Chairman and CEO of Hughes Network Systems, LLC. “Our management team continues and we welcome the new ownership structure, which brings two major players in the satellite industry to join with DIRECTV as our owners, SkyTerra and Apollo Management.”- what else could he say?.....he has a new boss as of today. I give it 6-8 weeks before major management and direction changes occur.