BRUSSELS, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Tuesday unconditionally approved satellite operator SES's 3.1-billion-dollar bid to acquire Intelsat, a deal expected to strengthen Europe's position in the fast-growing satellite broadband market.
Both SES and Intelsat are global satellite network providers headquartered in Luxembourg, operating fleets of geostationary Earth orbit satellites. Despite its Luxembourg domicile, Intelsat maintains its primary operations and administrative headquarters in the United States.
According to the Commission, its investigation found the merged firm would continue to face competition from other satellite providers as well as from terrestrial technologies like fibre in "one-way" services, and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite operators, such as Elon Musk's Starlink, in "two-way" services.
"The Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area," the EU's executive body said in a statement.
SES and Intelsat said the tie-up would enhance coverage and resilience, and help them remain competitive as LEO players in the satellite communications market. ■