Satellite Communications

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s $9.1 billion acquisition of Loral Corp.'s defense electronics business was a blockbuster deal by anyone's standards, but the most intriguing aspect of the deal could be the part of Loral that got away.As part of the agreement, Loral's holdings in the risky but potentially lucrative satellite communications business were split off into a new company called Loral Space and Communications Corp.Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin came away with a 20 percent stake in the new corporation, at a cost of $344 million.

Gray, Kirk/VanSant Advertising and Public Relations Inc. will expand to Phoenix, Ariz., after its selection to handle advertising for Iridium Satellite LLC. The Baltimore-based advertising agency recently was named the agency of record for the satellite company - an account estimated to be worth about $7 million, according to an industry expert. Iridium Satellite, led by former UNC Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dan A. Colussy, recently acquired the assets of Iridium LLC and plans to launch global satellite communications services early this year.

In a stinging setback for Comsat Corp., the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill yesterday that would strip the Bethesda-based company of its right to be the sole U.S. conduit for international satellite communications.Comsat is the designated U.S. member of the two international satellite organizations, Intelsat and Inmarsat, and has long held the exclusive right to provide their services to U.S. communications firms.Proponents of the legislation say it would open up the burgeoning field of satellite communication to competition.

The third quarter of 1999 was kind to Columbia's Essex Corp., a small technology company that has fought to become profitable.Essex reported net income of $116,000, or 3 cents a share, on revenue of just over $1.3 million for the three-month period that ended Sept. 26. That was up from net income of $67,000, or 2 cents a share, on revenue of $1.27 million for the comparable portion of 1998.The numbers improved despite the fact that work is declining on certain types of contracts -- satellite communications support for Motorola -- that had been sustaining Essex through previous rough patches.

Comsat Corp., the satellite communications company that plans to be taken over by Bethesda neighbor Lockheed Martin Corp., said yesterday that its third-quarter earnings and revenue were down from last year.Comsat posted a net loss of $18.4 million, or 35 cents per diluted share, compared with net income of $6.6 million -- 12 cents per share -- in the comparable quarter of 1998. The earnings figures for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 were dragged down by one-time factors, including a $36 million write-off of its direct investment in ICO Global Communications Ltd. and $5.3 million in costs related to the pending acquisition by Lockheed.

A headline in Saturday's editions of The Sun stated that Comcast Corp. had hired Merrill Lynch to study ways to increase its stock price and had reported a drop in operating earnings. In fact, it was Comsat Corp., a Bethesda-based satellite communications company, that hired Merrill Lynch and reported the financial results.The Sun regrets the errors.Comsat Corp., which has been trying desperately for more than a year to pump some vigor into its lagging shares, announced yesterday that it has hired Merrill Lynch & Co. to advise it on how to boost its stock price.

The Westinghouse Electronic Systems Group in Linthicum yesterday won a new contract that will boost its involvement in the satellite communication business and help establish a seamless mobile telephone system covering the United States, Canada and Mexico.The company said it has been selected by the Mexican government to build an $18 million satellite ground station in Mexico City that will provide mobile communications to any part of the country.The facility will be designed so that it will operate with other ground stations that Westinghouse has built in Reston, Va., and Ottawa, Canada, as part of a communication system serving all three countries.

If Michale Barr ("Let market decide when wind blows," Feb. 7) is correct that technologies succeed only when the free market aligns to demand and finance them, then we have wasted billions on the development of such crackpot schemes as aviation, satellite communications, hydro-power, interstate highways, nuclear energy, global positioning and, perhaps the biggest government boondoggle of all time, the Internet. The government led all of these efforts when all the market demanded was faster horses, better steam locomotives and more whale oil. By positioning Maryland as a frontrunner in developing clean, alternative energy sources, Gov.Martin O'Malleyis asking us to create an state where future generations have the infrastructure needed to prosper.

NEW YORK -- Loral Space & Communications Ltd. agreed yesterday to buy out its European partners in Space Systems/Loral for $374 million, part of Chairman Bernard Schwartz's vision to create a global satellite communications company.Loral will buy the remaining 49 percent of Space Systems/Loral from Aerospatiale, Alcatel Espace, Alenia Spazio SpA and Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG for cash and Loral stock. The companies will receive a combined stake in Loral Space & Communications of about 6 percent.

Maj. Gen. Chester V. "Ted" Clifton Jr., 78, senior military aide to President John F. Kennedy, died of lung ailments Monday in Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He joined President Kennedy's staff in 1961 and was in almost constant touch with him throughout his presidency. He was in the Dallas motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963, when the president was assassinated. He was aboard Air Force One when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president and later served Mr. Johnson as a military aide.