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SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

nytimes.com

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Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#61

Post by InclinedPlane »

gozur88 wrote: post #9
joshuas wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does being publicly traded necessarily mean you focus on the short term nowadays? We've got companies like Snap who issue non voting shares. I imagine SpaceX could offer common shares that have no voting rights, accept all future dilution and require you punch yourself in the head on Tuesdays and they'd still have a pretty decent offering.

Being publicly traded never necessarily meant you focus on short term. If that were actually true you'd never have seen Intel shelling out $15bn for a fab, or Westinghouse designing nuclear reactors.

Bad example. One of those companies went bankrupt recently.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#62

Post by BatFastard »

Govindae wrote: post #59
loeg wrote: post #4

> Mr. Musk faces competition from another billionaire. Blue Origin, a rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, aims to send tourists and supplies into space. Is that line even close to true? Last I heard Blue Origin was years away from revenue and far behind SpaceX in terms of capability and manufacturing.

They are the only direct competitor on technology development. In 10 years, BO aims to be flying reusable rockets larger than the Falcon 9. You can't say that about and other company (except for SpaceX). They are more directly a competitor for talent. Rocket engineering is a small world.

One time I can say "God Bless" to competition!

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#63

Post by paulcole »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #55
BlackjackCF wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not right now, but I wouldn't ever underestimate Bezos. Musk and Bezos are both people I wouldn't bet against, but they're so drastically different in their styles. Musk is flashy, but gets shit done. Bezos knows how to get shit done quietly... and suddenly he's dominated and bought everything around you.

Amazon has a load of terrible products. Even their store is getting worse and worse. The fire phone was a complete flop. Amazon cloud drive and music are not at all at the same level as their competitors. Google Home is looking as though it's going to surpass the Echo. Amazon is successful because they are fine with taking losses, only just recently making a small amount of profit compared to their scale.

>Amazon is successful because they are fine with taking losses, only just recently making a small amount of profit compared to their scale.

I thought this tired narrative was almost over? For decades Amazon chose to invest in infrastructure and logistics.

Now they're "making a small amount of profit compared to their scale"? Who's at that same scale setting the bar for profit? Remember that "scale" doesn't equal revenue.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#64

Post by microcolonel »

dbosch wrote: post #58

"World's most valuable privately held companies". Sounds weird, no? What about Vitol ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitol ), Saudi Aramco, Koch Industries ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries ) ... etc ?

This is what you call a fluff piece. HN and the broader computer technology industry is sycophantic for Elon Musk, and will ignore that all of his companies would be dead in the water if it weren't for the questionable appropriation of government funds, at least if they spent and marketed the way that they do. The products are great, but the money comes out of everyone's pockets. You're all paying for some guy's Model S.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#65

Post by JumpCrisscross »

gogopuppygogo wrote: post #53
Overtonwindow wrote: post #49

The best thing Mr. Musk can do, in my humble opinion, is to never, ever take SpaceX public.

Why not do a limited IPO that ensures he retains control. Don't the people working for SpaceX deserve to have liquidity? Isn't it fair for the general public to have the ability to profit off of his epic feats?

> Don't the people working for SpaceX deserve to have liquidity?

There is a robust secondary market for SpaceX stock.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#66

Post by sien »

microcolonel wrote: post #64
dbosch wrote: post #58

"World's most valuable privately held companies". Sounds weird, no? What about Vitol ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitol ), Saudi Aramco, Koch Industries ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries ) ... etc ?

This is what you call a fluff piece. HN and the broader computer technology industry is sycophantic for Elon Musk, and will ignore that all of his companies would be dead in the water if it weren't for the questionable appropriation of government funds, at least if they spent and marketed the way that they do. The products are great, but the money comes out of everyone's pockets. You're all paying for some guy's Mode…

Sure.

However, in space launch it's not like Lockheed Martin and Arianne didn't do the same.

The difference with SpaceX is that for once a government got value for money on an Aerospace deal.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#67

Post by mkhalil »

gogopuppygogo wrote: post #53
Overtonwindow wrote: post #49

The best thing Mr. Musk can do, in my humble opinion, is to never, ever take SpaceX public.

Why not do a limited IPO that ensures he retains control. Don't the people working for SpaceX deserve to have liquidity? Isn't it fair for the general public to have the ability to profit off of his epic feats?

"Isn't it fair for the general public to have the ability to profit off of his epic feats?"

I have never ever heard of this being called fair in my life. Honestly, I would have to go with "I don't know" for this answer.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#68

Post by jdavis703 »

tertius wrote: post #46
burkaman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$20B is right around NASA's budget. At least society is consistent in valuing space exploration.

Budget, as in expenditure per year no market value.

The budget is what the general voting public values NASA at for a given year, while the market cap of a firm is what the last sucker to buy a stock thinks it's valued at.

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#69

Post by strictnein »

I mean, SpaceX is great and all, but it's no Cargill or even in the same league as Cargill or other similar companies like Koch (which is #2 in the US):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargill

   Revenue: US$109.6 billion (2017)[1]
   Net income: US$2.835 billion (2017)[1]
   Total assets: US$55.8 billion
   25% of all United States grain exports 
   22% of the US domestic meat market

Re: SpaceX Is Now One of the World’s Most Valuable Privately Held Companies

#70

Post by hariananth »

dbosch wrote: post #58

"World's most valuable privately held companies". Sounds weird, no? What about Vitol ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitol ), Saudi Aramco, Koch Industries ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries ) ... etc ?

You're improperly editing... both the HN title and the NYT piece say "One of the (start your quote) World's most valuable privately held companies".
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