[Satellite Today 05-27-09] Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) subsidiary Mabuhay Satellite Corp. dropped its offer to buy $27.5 million worth of preferred shares of ProtoStar, PLDT announced in a disclosure statement released May 19.
    In the statement, PLDT said the deal was cancelled due to non-fulfillment of certain closing conditions. PLDT secured the option under a September agreement between Mabuhay and ProtoStar in which ProtoStar leased transponders onboard Mabuhay’s Agila 2 satellite.
    PLDT’s agreement with ProtoStar for space segment services for use of C-band transponders on the ProtoStar 1 satellite from 2011 to 2017 remains effective, PLDT said.
    The agreement has ProtoStar providing PLDT a customized payload on the satellite consisting of four 36 megahertz non-preemptive C-band transponders and one additional non-preemptive extended C-band transponder for a total consideration of $1.1 million per quarter.