WASHINGTON: Intelsat has announced the acquisition of Intelsat Global Service Corporation and its affiliates of the World Systems business unit of Lockheed Martin.

"The closing of this transaction clearly demonstrates Intelsat's commitment to providing our global customers with end-to-end solutions under the Intelsat brand," Intelsat chief executive officer, Conny Kullman is quoted as saying in a company release. "This acquisition also positions us to better serve our North American customers, specifically by placing us in more direct contact with them and thereby giving us better knowledge of their requirements," he added.

The companies have recently received regulatory, FCC and other approvals, the release says. The acquired assets include existing service contracts with World Systems' customers for Intelsat capacity, earth stations in Clarksburg, Maryland and Paumalu, Hawaii used for satellite fleet management, and the teleport facilities and related assets of COMSAT Digital Teleport in Clarksburg, Maryland.

The addition of the earth station and teleport assets to Intelsat's network thus brings Intelsat closer to completing assembly of a ground-based infrastructure to complement its existing global satellite fleet.