ORBITAL WHISPERS

TL;DR
Viasat’s year‐end letter masks a mixed reality in which a hefty impairment and shrinking broadband base sit alongside growing defense revenues and a nascent maritime product.
The company is leaning on new aviation clients and hybrid orbited connectivity to prop up its more troubled segments.
Viasat’s FY25: Not Dead, Just Lightly Smoldering
Viasat’s Q4 FY25 shareholder letter reads like a victory lap, if that lap were taken around a smoldering crater with a grin and a fire extinguisher in hand. The company would like you to focus on the upbeat narrative: record awards, expanding aircraft coverage, a sparkling new multi-orbit maritime service. But if you actually read past the first page, and let’s be honest, most people don’t, you’ll find something far more interesting: a company simultaneously reinventing itself and quietly admitting that parts of the business are falling apart in real time.
Take the $169 million write-down on the EMEA ground network. Not a footnote, an entire crater. It’s written off with the kind of corporate language that implies these things “happen,” as if they tripped over a satellite cable on the way to innovation. Over $100 million in non-cash asset evaporations, plus liability adjustments, all tucked under the umbrella of “corrective actions.” They call it progress. Others might call it “who signed off on this?”

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