Cobham plc has established a new strategic business unit (SBU) – Cobham SATCOM – that combines all of the Group’s satellite communications businesses into one organisation, following the successful acquisition and integration of Danish satcom company Thrane & Thrane earlier this year. Thrane & Thrane will trade as Cobham SATCOM from November 2012, and will form the core of the new SBU.  

Headquartered in Denmark, Cobham SATCOM is led by Thrane & Thrane CEO Walther Thygesen with assistance from a multinational management team, and includes Cobham’s satcom facilities in Cape Town, South Africa, Concord, California and Orlando, Florida. Cobham SATCOM is now twice the size of what either Thrane & Thrane or Cobham’s legacy satcom businesses were prior to this combination. 

Rebranding of Thrane & Thrane will begin immediately and is expected to complete during 2013. In addition to adopting the Cobham SATCOM name and Cobham’s brand, the SATCOM SBU will be rebranding its products throughout 2013. Some of Cobham’s satcom product lines will be adopting Thrane & Thrane’s product names: Cape Town’s airborne products will be renamed AVIATOR, and Orlando’s land-mobile products will be renamed EXPLORER; the SAILOR and Sea Tel maritime product names will continue to be used. 

Richard Tyson, President of the Cobham Aerospace and Security Division that includes SATCOM SBU, said: “Cobham SATCOM has a great future. The integration of the businesses is going well, with teams focused on how best to bring together complementary product lines and routes to market so that we can grow the business further. As the demand for airborne, land-mobile and maritime satellite communications continues to increase, we’re working hard to make it easier for customers to buy from us a wider range of satcom equipment and integrated solutions.”