Hughes Wins BP Amoco Satellite Contract

Hughes Electronics Corp., the world’s No. 1 satellite maker, won a contract to supply satellites to BP Amoco for its U.S. service stations to transmit credit card and other transaction data, beating out rival Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. The five-year contract, valued at about $50 million, is for 8,600 BP Amoco stations in the U.S., Hughes said. Analysts had predicted that Israel-based Gilat would win the contract. British Petroleum was a Gilat customer, while Amoco Corp. was a Hughes customer. Now, by using one supplier, satellite service for the combined company formed Dec. 31 will be “uniform across the board” and will reduce costs, BP Amoco said. Shares of El Segundo-based Hughes fell 58 cents to close at $58.25 on the NYSE.