ocessing systems and services for the lottery industry, in January 2003. That April, Hughes extended a contract with BMW of North America to provide networking services to the car manufacturing giant. Hughes Network Systems also sold off its 55 percent stake in Hughes Software to Flextronics International, a Singapore-based electronics manufacturer, for $226 million in June 2004. Thomas S.A., a French electronics manufacturer, paid $250 million in cash to Hughes for its set-top box manufacturing assets in May 2004. Broadband explosion In March 1999, Hughes, sensing the inevitable explosion of broadband data, invested $1.4 billion into the Spaceway global broadband satellite network. Spaceway was a high-bandwidth and high-speed communications system designed to provide bandwidth on demand, with customers paying for only the bandwidth they use. Hughes discontinued its line of cellular and narrowband, local loop communications products at the start of 2000 in an attempt to focus on broadband and high-speed communications systems. By the end of the year, Hughes added to its broadband arsenal with the acquisition of digital service line provider Telocity, Inc. for $179 million. The acquisition allowed Hughes to become the first U.S. provider of both digital multichannel television and wired and satellite broadband Internet access. Hughes built a 43,000-square-foot, $20 million "nerve center" for its Hughes Network Systems division in July 2001 in Germantown, Md. The opening of the operations center was the start of Hughes' push into the broadband satellite service realm with its DirecWay service, a two-way connection in which users could receive and send data over the same wireless receiver. Over the next two years, the company Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, VAULT CAREER career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more. LIBRARY Vault Guide to the Top Telecom Employers The DIRECTV Group, Inc. expanded DirecWay to include satellite services to South Am