WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) ? Intelsat Ltd., the third-largest global satellite operator, withdrew plans last week for an initial public offering of shares and hired advisers to explore a sale of the company.

Bermuda-registered Intelsat said in a statement it plans to explore interest it previously received from suitors now that the IPO has been scrapped. A government-imposed deadline for Intelsat to sell shares was postponed last week.

Intelsat, which had planned to raise as much as $500 million in the IPO, may follow the lead of PanAmSat Corp. and be sold in a leveraged buyout, analysts including Thomas Egan of HSBC Securities said.

Investment firms may be attracted to the company?s cash flow, said Egan, who values Intelsat?s equity and debt at $5 billion to $6 billion.

?These guys clearly think that they can talk with the folks in the private-equity firms and quite possibly get a better deal than they could get in the IPO market,? Egan said.

Intelsat?s 6.5 percent notes due 2013 fell to 86 cents on the dollar from about 89 cents, traders said. Bonds of companies thought to be candidates for leveraged buyouts typically fall because of concern the transaction will add debt.

PanAmSat, the biggest US commercial satellite-operator, agreed last month to be bought by leveraged-buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $3.53 billion.

Intelsat hired Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch & Co. to advise on a possible sale or investment in the company.

?The current mix of market and regulatory developments makes it clear that withdrawal of the IPO is in the best interest of our company,? Intelsat chief executive Conny Kullman said in the statement. He wasn?t more specific and Intelsat spokeswoman Dianne VanBeber didn?t return a call seeking comment.

More than 600 customers, including AT&T Corp. and the US government, buy satellite capacity from Intelsat to transmit voice, video and data signals.

The company was founded in 1964 and transmitted video signals of the first moon walk in 1969.

President Bush last week signed into law a bill that delays a deadline for an IPO at Intelsat, which was formerly owned by a consortium of governments, to the middle or end of 2005 from the end of next month.

In April the company said it had held discussions with unnamed possible acquirers or investors.

The talks had been suspended pending the IPO.