Astrium, Europe's leading space company, completes the acquisition of Vizada after receiving the necessary regulatory approvals. Vizada is a leading independent provider of global satellite communications services and will be integrated into Astrium Services. This acquisition represents a total consideration of 673 million euro and contributes to EADS' strategic Vision 2020.

"We are happy to welcome Vizada into the EADS Group, which concludes a successful year for us in terms of acquisitions", said Marwan Lahoud, Head of EADS Corporate Strategy and Marketing Organisation. "In 2011, we have significantly strengthened our services portfolio, which is a key focus of our acquisition strategy."

According to Eric Beranger, CEO of Astrium Services: "Combining the skills and capabilities of everyone in Vizada and Astrium Services creates a world leading provider of satellite services.

"Together, we now provide our customers and partners with the broadest range of product and service choices - from fixed to mobile services, and from government to civil and private customers. In sharing our best practices and building on both teams' expertise, we will create new growth by continuing to develop innovative products to meet our evolving customer needs worldwide."

Vizada comprises Vizada Americas, Vizada Networks, Vizada EMEA and AsiaPacific and Marlink. The company has more than 700 employees serving 200,000 end-customers across sectors such as maritime, aero, land, media, Non Governmental Organisations and government/defence.

Vizada offers mobile and fixed connectivity services from multiple satellite network operators both directly and through a network of 400 service provider partners.

Astrium Services is the world's first commercial provider of military-specific communications services, enabling governments and the military to procure secure communications as and when required, notably to the UK Ministry of Defence under the Skynet-5 contract.

Through its range of GEO-Information services, Astrium is also recognized as one of the leaders in the geo-spatial information market, covering the entire geo-information supply chain.

With over 3,200 employees now, Astrium Services will be composed of four business lines: Telecom Commercial, Telecom Governmental, Secure Satcom Systems, and GEO-Information Services.

With significant synergies in addressed markets, customer types, technologies and geographies, the integration of Vizada vastly broadens the range of solutions offered by Astrium Services.

It enhances both its commercial satcoms capabilities and its global presence. Furthermore, it ensures that Vizada's customers and partners will benefit from long-term guaranteed service availability as well as access to best of breed technologies and customer support capability.

Together, Astrium Services and Vizada will form a world leading provider of satellite valueadded services. About EADS EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2010, the Group - comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter - generated revenues of 45.8 billion euro and employed a workforce of nearly 122,000.