FCC Approves Intelsat/Serafina Transaction

FCC APPROVES INTELSAT/SERAFINA TRANSACTION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The Federal Communications Commission has approved the transfer of control of Intelsat and six subsidiaries of Intelsat - Intelsat LLC, Intelsat North America LLC, Intelsat General Corporation, Intelsat USA License Corp., PanAmSat Licensee Corp., and PanAmSat H-2 Licensee Corp. - from Intelsat's existing control group of four private equity firms to Serafina, a newly-formed Bermuda company indirectly controlled by BC Partners Holdings Limited, a U.K.-based investment firm organized under the laws of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. Commissioner Michael Copps said, "Today's decision substitutes one group of private equity firms for another group of private equity firms as owners of the world's largest provider of fixed satellite services. While I have no reason to believe that this latest group of owners will operate the company with more or less concern for the public interest than the previous group, I concur in today's decision because the Commission still has not conducted a comprehensive investigation into the effects of private equity investment on Commission licensees. We need to start looking at these important questions and we need to do so quickly. We simply cannot discharge our public interest responsibilities in a piecemeal fashion. It is high time to conduct a general analysis of how this significant change in our commercial-financial system affects the ability of the FCC to carry out its responsibilities and then apply these principles to every private equity transaction that comes before us."
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-220A1.doc

* More info at http://www.fcc.gov/transaction/intelsat-serafina.html

* Commissioner Copps
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-220A2.doc

* FCC clears Intelsat sale to private equity consortium for $16.4 billion
http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_7762058