Intelsat Cuts Staff, Advances Toward Possible Sale

Intelsat Ltd. reduced its workforce by between 40 and 50 jobs last week as part of an ongoing restructuring to realign its costs with revenues while advancing its search for a prospective financial buyer.

Many of the layoffs affected sales and marketing, while the ground operating staff also lost jobs, industry sources said. Last week’s RIF likely will be followed by other job cuts in the coming weeks and months.

The list of potential buyers for Intelsat also has been winnowed, and it now includes between two and four prospective financial buyers, industry sources said. A sale could take place before summer’s end.

PanAmSat [SPOT] and News Skies Satellites N.V. [NSK], two rivals of Intelsat, were sold to financial buyers earlier this year. Intelsat announced May 21 that it withdrew its planned initial public offering, and that it engaged Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch to explore the potential of another party’s investment in or acquisition of the company.