Here's my perspective. Let me start by saying I was one of the 800 in the layoff. Mark D was originally touting about being a disruptor in the industry. We were told books to read about being a disruptor, then Elon disrupted the whole industry. After that the comments about being a disruptor ceased and all we heard was Mark D complaining about space junk and the number of sats that Elon was launching. Probably a necessary conversation but not a good one from a publicity point of view. Then we merged with Inmarsat. We launched a new satellite at the first of 2023 and the antenna didn't deploy. We were late getting it into orbit and that contributed to Viasat deciding to use the high thrust route to get it into its orbital position sooner. That decision is probably what led to the failure. After that Inmarsat launched a satellite that failed, so now Viasat has two pieces of space junk in orbit. Is this poetic justice? Viasat's system is based on a distribution of smaller gateways. By having a multitude of these, they can achieve tremendous reliability except for the single point of failure, which is the satellite itself. At this point they have a large cash investment in the distributed gateways across the USA with no satellite. For the layoff, I was surprised at the number of technical leaders that were included in this. I can understand a reduction in force as finances dictate this. What I don't understand is laying off many of the subject matter experts. This speaks poorly of the long term goals of the company. This says they are mainly concerned with short term cashflow. Maybe this is survival mode but it does make them attractive to buyers whether intentional or not.
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You people who were let go last year are out of the loop now and have no idea what’s going on with the company now. It’s obvious from some of the comments that are just flat wrong.
One thing I noticed in the discussions leading up to the final merger with Inmarsat. They did a side by side comparison between Inmarsat and Viasat. Noticeably, Inmarsat did not have a hardware development group while Viasat did. I believe Inmarsat believes in buying other peoples products while Viasat believed in lots of engineering development. I think the merger has cooled the desire for developing hi tech. Shortfalls in revenue due to failed sats along with the influence of Inmarsat management has contributed to this.
I was let go in November. I was shocked at the number of key people that were let go in engineering. That and the constant defunding of the development of viasat 4 sat and it's subsequent efforts, and the lack of urgency to launch the other 2 V3 sats- it's almost as if they are moving away from making their own satellites.
Or Blockbuster, Yahoo, Myspace, Sears, Motorola, etc @7war+1qQnFEcu
This must be what it felt like at Kodak
The Innovator's Dilemma, a book by Clayton M. Christensen, explores the concept of disruptive innovation and the challenges established companies face when dealing with new, groundbreaking technologies. The main idea is that successful companies can be disrupted by newcomers because they often focus on sustaining innovations to meet the needs of their current customers, rather than investing in disruptive innovations that may not have immediate returns. This can lead to the eventual downfall of the incumbent company as the disruptive innovation gains traction and market share. The book provides examples from various industries and offers recommendations for companies to avoid this dilemma, such as creating separate organizations to manage disruptive innovations and fostering a culture that embraces change and risk-taking.
From salary.com...
As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at VIASAT INC, Mark Dankberg made $6,996,915 in total compensation. Of this total $1,364,000 was received as a salary, $2,030,400 was received as a bonus, $3,575,736 was received in stock options, $0 was awarded as stock and $26,779 came from other types of compensation. This information is according to proxy statements filed for the 2023 fiscal year.
He's winning.
Earnings surprise of -607%.
I get the impression that Inmarsat is making the decisions and technical leaders are expected to be based in Europe. This may change in 2 or 3 years.
💯 accurate
I have a new job and a severance check. Sc--w it. IDC
It's OK. Viasat is doubling down on offshore hiring to fill all of those technical expertise gaps.
Guru the clown will make sure of that
This is all on dankberg. He made poor engineering decisions. And he has always had a hard on to put up satellites at whatever the cost. Problem is he’s not very good at it. VS2 has issues, and VS3 is a bust. And immersat was a stupid buy just to try to compete with Elon. And Elon has proved GEOs are not the way to go. Dankberg was all about GEOs until he wasn’t. The guy effed up his own company and handed it over to guru the clown. Another great pick. A guy with a real thin resume. Whole thing is a joke and sad because at one point it was a great place with good stuff. Now it will just fade off into the sunset. Probably sold off piece by piece.
Because that is the way that it always happens with these types of bozos. Make bad decisions, get rewarded. Cut out many of the workers that bust their butts in order to minimize the loses. "But hey, we need to get our bonuses." Rinse, repeat.
Why are ex's getting more then 1M in stocks after layoff?