ViaSat Inc. announced Nov. 21 it reached an agreement to acquire privately held Efficient Channel Coding Inc. (ECC), a producer of broadband communication integrated circuits and satellite communication systems.

This acquisition gives ViaSat access to the IPStar satellite broadband market, as ECC holds the license for the satellite terminal design for IPStar. Under that license, ECC supplies its customized chips to authorized IPStar terminal contract manufacturers and receives royalties for the terminal design. ECC also provides components and systems featuring the S2 version of the DVB-RCS standard.

The deal includes an initial cash purchase price of about $16.5 million and assumption of certain stock options. ViaSat could pay an additional consideration of about $9 million in cash and stock based on ECC meeting certain financial performance targets throughout the next two years.