Thread regarding ViaSat Inc. layoffs

What has been 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 anyone’s fault. That was 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 we compare him with 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. 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, Inmarsat were also slow as well. Inmarsat had a LEO constellation plan but sadly not the funding to deploy it. Oh well…here’s hoping for the next year