[Satellite Today – 1-7-08] Hughes Communications Inc. will acquire business IPTV solutions provider Helius Inc. for $30.5 million, Hughes announced Jan. 4.
    The acquisition, expected to be completed in early February, makes Helius a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes. The company will operate with Hughes’ North America and International enterprise businesses.
    “As a premier managed network services provider to enterprise and SMB customers, Hughes saw a natural fit in teaming with Helius to better address the market for digital media solutions,” Pradman Kaul, president and CEO of Hughes, said in a statement. “We believe this acquisition will uniquely position Hughes as a cost-effective, end-to-end service provider offering content management, hardware, installation, maintenance, network operations and services.”
    Separately, Hughes also signed Dow Electronics to be a distributor of HughesNet satellite broadband Internet service in the southeastern United States.
    Under the terms of the agreement, Dow Electronics will market primarily to retailers in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands who will sell and install the HughesNet satellite broadband access service.
    "Adding HughesNet satellite broadband to our sales portfolio is a natural fit as many of our satellite television and consumer electronics retailers market in areas where the cable and telephone industries simply have not reached with a broadband solution," Chip Yodzis, president and CEO of Dow Electronics, said. "Our agreement with Hughes not only opens up a new revenue stream for our dealers and a new sales channel for Hughes, it also helps solidify our relationships with the retail channel of satellite specialists."