Loral and SSL Reach Settlement With ViaSat
Loral Space & Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL) today announced that Loral, Loral’s former subsidiary, Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SSL), and ViaSat, Inc. (ViaSat) have settled the breach of contract and patent infringement lawsuits brought by ViaSat against Loral and SSL in February 2012 and against SSL in September 2013.
Under the terms of the settlement, in consideration of a current payment to ViaSat of $40 million and future payments of $60 million over 2 1/2 years with interest, ViaSat has agreed that SSL and its customers will be free from any lawsuits with respect to SSL’s future use of the ten patents-in-suit and certain other patents and patent applications and with respect to breach of certain contracts that were the subject of the suit. The settlement also releases Loral, SSL and their customers from all claims for patent infringement and breach of contract brought in the lawsuits.
The payments to ViaSat will initially be funded equally by Loral and SSL but will be subject to a further allocation between the parties. Loral and SSL have agreed to arbitration in October 2014 to allocate how much of the payment each party bears.
“We are pleased with the settlement with ViaSat as it avoids further exposure to the uncertainties of jury determinations in complex patent matters at a cost to both Loral and SSL that, given the breadth of the settlement, is well within the range of reasonable settlements,” said Michael B. Targoff, Vice Chairman of Loral. “We are also satisfied with the arrangements that we have put in place to allocate the payment between Loral and SSL. We believe these arrangements, providing for a knowledgeable, experienced attorney/arbitrator to make the determinations, will result in a fair and equitable sharing of the settlement cost acceptable to both companies.”
About Loral Space & Communications Inc.
Loral Space & Communications is a satellite communications company. Loral owns 62.8 percent of Telesat Canada, a global operator of telecommunications and direct broadcast satellites used to distribute video entertainment programming, broadband data, and provide access to Internet services and other value-added communications services. For more information, visit Loral’s web site at www.loral.com. LORL-G
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