I'm going to be very clear and it's possible you've not heard this before. As a legacy Viasat employee I can say without hesitation that Viasat fu---d Inmarsat. I agree with people’s perspectives of how it must feel to work with an out of touch and disconnected organization like Viasat. I'm familiar with the problems the Inmarsat organization had, sure those existed, but Viasat didn't bring anything to make them better. We fu---d you because we don't know how to build satellites. We fu---d you because we ignore customer wants. We fu---d you because we think we are smarter than our customers. We fu---d you because we couldn't afford the deal in the first place, needing gobs of debt that we now both have to contend with. We fu---d you because our religion hindered what would have been faster pivots to LEO partners for your businesses. We fu---d you because we haven't got the foggiest idea what to do with your business lines except watch as those markets cede to StarLink. The reality is that Inmarsat saved Viasat, with their legacy revenues while all VS3 revenues got massively delayed. I could go on, but it may be helpful to know there are legacy Viasat employees who understand the truth.
10 replies (most recent on top)
Funny as ph--k watching all these current and ex employees squabble over who is right and wrong while the ship is sinking. What you really should be doing is jumping ship. Viasat=Titanic. Writings on the wall. At one point the stock was $70+? What's the price today? Gooroo laughing at all you folks squabbling while the triumvirate in their crystal tower with a golden parachute and riding into the sunset. Anyone still there is bordering in delusion or insanity. Doing the same thing expecting a different result! Thank you Jesus not there anymore!
@2heu+1uJDfBVJ thinks he pretty clever. Wrong again. Still a VS employee for 9 years, on Carlsbad campus. This only reinforces the comments that VS emps feel superior and have nothing to learn from IS emps. The fact remains without VS3, the acquistion had nothing left to offer IS and everything after that only hindered the multiple market directions IS could have taken. They at least were open to signing up LEO networks very early. The ongoing IS revenues saved VS, but now those too will run dry due to the briallance of VS leadership (doh! there goes another British word, blast they got me again those scallywags). It's a sad mess and don't think you're above it all.
Hey ignor@nt y@nkees you would do well to learn that legacy Viasat had many non-American staff like British, Singaporean, Dutch and many other. And they feel much like the legacy Inmarsat folks feel, too. Viasat will never be an international company because it can't learn and won't change.
@2bzc+1uJDfBVJ lol I thought the same thing.
"gobs" was like the scene from inglorious ba----ds when he asked for three glasses. People on this website really do think they are anonymous and it's funny sometimes.
Nah, I agree this is fake. It reads with a British accent.
It's real. I'm Viasat and the others are Inmarsat, and you are an a-hole
There is no chance this post is real. Everybody knows Inmarsat was sc--wed before and nothing has changed. Sure, Viasat is a mess, but to say Inmarsat employees are worse off now is horse sh-t. They are widely known to be incompetent, useless, whiney, and entitled. They outsource everything they do and aren't worth the paper their contracts are printed on. They should have all VRP'd like we hoped. This post smacks of a passive aggressive London job. Nobody at Viasat is apologizing to Inmarsat people for the awful sh-t we're going through every day. Nice try.
Legacy Inmatsat employee here, working in global operations.
What surprises me the most is the absolute lack of curiosity on the part of Viasat middle management. Every discussion always ends with a “yes, but at Viasat we don’t work like that”, and the obvious corollary “you have to change your processes and align with ours”. Viasat is a sort of "religion": whoever disagrees or suggests something different is an "infidel" who needs to convert. There is also a lot of disrespect for time zones: meetings are still scheduled past 10am California. Extremely frustrating!
Perhaps both legacy-sides of the Company can agree with the often quoted words which have described various (mainly failed) military campaigns - We are Lions led by Donkeys.
Hey - as someone from the Inmarsat engineering side…thanks for your post…means a lot. If it is of any consolation, what I have seen (at least from the central eng org) there are a lot of damm smart people on the legacy Viasat side below the L2 level, some now sadly exiting the business. Obviously the same is now true in terms of exits on the legacy Inmarsat side…talent on both sides who have had enough of the demotions, pointless reorgs, RIFs, indecision by the execs, lack of f2f bi-directional communication with staff, lack of a convincing strategy and lack of any fast pivot in the face of mounting competition. There is a little point appointing blame but the acquisition was not your or my fault. That was our (Inmarsat’s) private equity owners wanting to exit and Viasat looking to stay relevant by buying global L-band and Ka-band assets. Sadly MD has always failed to impress when I compare him with our Inmarsat leadership. The fact that technical strategy is solely driven by him and a small cohort of legacy Viasat senior technical staff with decades at the company is astounding. Any technical leadership team needs to have a broad DNA…not consist of solely of people with family connections and/or 20 years in the same company. I recall MD once attended an Inmarsat leadership team meeting not long after the acquisition closed and cut an unimpressive figure being completely dismissive of LEO despite Starlink being a clear-and-present danger. That said, we (Inmarsat) were also slow as well. We had a LEO constellation plan but sadly not the funding to deploy it. Oh well…here’s hoping for the next year