[Satellite Today 08-01-09] Satellite industry officials and analysts believe the post-bankruptcy sale of ProtoStar satellites will draw interest from multiple parties.
    AsiaSat CEO Peter Jackson told Satellite Today that his company has not ruled out efforts to acquire ProtoStar’s satellites in a court auction. “We may have orbital slots that could work with these satellites. We haven’t looked at it that seriously. But, we will. I presume there will be some kind of auction now. We could well participate in that,” said Jackson.
    Patrick French, a satellite analyst at NSR, told Satellite Today that a bidding war for these assets is not out of the question. “I tend to lean towards dissolving of the company and selling of the assets because of the coordination issue that would hang over the company if someone bought it for pennies on the dollar and tried to continue operations. I have no doubt that some of the other satellite operators are very closely eyeing the ProtoStar 1 and 2 satellites and one could even see a bidding war (to a certain extent) breakout to get healthy satellites ‘on the cheap’. Whatever happens, it will probably be the company that has the best orbital slot for the satellites (including priority and rights to frequency) that will win at the end of the day,” he said.
    ProtoStar and its five affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 29 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Deleware,  listing assets and liabilities between $100 million to $500 million and naming Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) as its largest unsecured creditor. ProtoStar has two satellites, ProtoStar 1 and 2.

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