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Rocketlab acquires Iridium

investors.rocketlabcorp.com

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Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#41

Post by proee »

We have a bright future full of endless "space-junk". As the price to orbit drops, people will inevitably send up more and more satellites that have questionable value. In 100 years will the sky at night just be a massive grid of dots moving across the sky?

Who will create the first advertisement in space using satellites as pixels to create their company logo? Maybe they can add some color and animations for kicks.

Edit: Another note on space junk is the effect on our atmosphere with all the "burning-up" of various materials. Apparently they don't just completely vaporize, but instead leave behind micro particles that float around for a long time. People are studying this and hopefully raising appropriate alarms (Making the case for wood satellites).

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#42

Post by s0rce »

proee wrote: post #41

We have a bright future full of endless "space-junk". As the price to orbit drops, people will inevitably send up more and more satellites that have questionable value. In 100 years will the sky at night just be a massive grid of dots moving across the sky? Who will create the first advertisement in space using satellites as pixels to create their company logo? Maybe they can add some color and animations for kicks.…

There is a legitimate concern with space junk hitting useful stuff or even manned spacecraft but I think space is big and the sky won't appear bright soon. Not all satellites are that reflective and they need to reflect the sun, they don't just glow visibly.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#43

Post by wongarsu »

saberience wrote: post #34
xgbi wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Rocketlab valued 57B? They made $500M of revenue in 2025. This is 100x their entire balance sheet.

Why was Uber valued in billions for years while making zero profit? Why was Amazon valued at billions while making zero profit? The stock market prices companies by many factors, revenue and profit are factors but so is growth. Utilities companies make lots of profits but they are valued badly because they don’t grow at all! Markets are forward looking and space is seen as a huge growth driver for the future, also Ro…

Uber and Amazon made zero profit, but a lot of revenue. That's very different from losing money on fairly little revenue

But RocketLab did have five years of strong revenue growth. And they have a lower PS ratio than SpaceX. So at least compared to industry-rivals the valuation is justified

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#44

Post by amluto »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #25
everfrustrated wrote: post #2

RocketLab gains spectrum + profitable satellite company

A profitable satellite company with a lot of debt and satellites that target the previous model of bespoke terminals when the market is moving to satellite service on regular phones.

> the market is moving to satellite service on regular phones.

I don’t think there a unified “market” here. The fixed rooftop terminals and fixed-ish roaming terminals use high (tens of GHz) frequencies with correspondingly wide bandwidth, have excellent beamforming capabilities and some degree of MIMO to improve spectrum reuse, and consume an amount of power that would be outrageous for a phone. Phones don’t have reliably clear views of the sky and have much weaker RF capabilities.

Oh, and phones are well served by existing 4G and 5G networks in dense areas, with better spectrum reuse than seems practical for a satellite constellation.

I expect that we will actually see two separate markets that happen to share the same satellites and backhaul.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#45

Post by dylan604 »

elzbardico wrote: post #22
moralestapia wrote: post #3

Crazy. I didn't know you could acquire things worth 20x more than you.

That's this thing called credit. People do this all the time, that's how they buy their first house (or at least used to...). Your net worth is basically zero beyond what you saved for the down payment, but the bank advances you the money to buy the house because it believes your future income streams will allow you to pay the principal plus an interest.

being able to foreclose on the house/property is a pretty decent protection for the bank that doesn't exist for a business though

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#46

Post by khurs »

phildenhoff wrote: post #9

Rocket lab used to be a New Zealand source of pride, having started there. From the press release, now it’s American. What happened?

SpaceX previously said that are not allowed to hire foreign nationals generally.

So guess NASA told Rocket that if they want American contracts, they need to move?

https://qz.com/794101/elon-musk-explains-why-he-doesnt-hire-...

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#48

Post by Centigonal »

proee wrote: post #41

We have a bright future full of endless "space-junk". As the price to orbit drops, people will inevitably send up more and more satellites that have questionable value. In 100 years will the sky at night just be a massive grid of dots moving across the sky? Who will create the first advertisement in space using satellites as pixels to create their company logo? Maybe they can add some color and animations for kicks.…

Hank Green did a video recently advocating for an "orbit value tax" -- like a Georgist Land Value Tax, but for orbits. This tax would, among other things, help fund orbital cleanup and internalize the externality of polluting orbital shells. It's an idea that deserves more discourse IMO.

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLjW6zuYmos

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#49

Post by ryandvm »

I dunno. I would be surprised if a 30 year old telecommunications network is going to be technically competitive with a SpaceX's LEO network that is still launching satellites as we speak.

How much market is there for people that just want low speed connectivity from the middle of nowhere?

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#50

Post by moralestapia »

xgbi wrote: post #27
pnw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RocketLab market cap is 57b. Iridium market cap was 5.5b and this transaction values it at 8b.

How is Rocketlab valued 57B? They made $500M of revenue in 2025. This is 100x their entire balance sheet.

Exactly my point.

Iridium's revenue is larger, and I wouldn't think they'd be losing money.

But apparently you can buy things with promises (if you're in the right club, of course).

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