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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

#81

Post by valuearb »

Inconel wrote: post #31
ChuckMcM wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big fan of both companies, but having watched them grow I think the answer to whether or not it is true that Blue Origin is a competitor is, "No, yes, maybe?" If SpaceX can get Falcon Heavy to work then no, so much of the oxygen will be sucked out of the launch services market that Blue Origin will be hard pressed to compete. At that point. I see them much more likely as a ULA acquisition to insure engine suppl…

I believe I read about a month or so ago that Bezos plans on selling ~$1 billion worth of stock annually to fund BO, I could be misremembering the exact figures though. Even at that burn rate, assuming Amazon continues to do well, I don't think it will be too much of a drain on his wealth. Plus, he seems like a pretty long term thinker so I don't think he'll throw in the towel even in FH captures a big chunk of heavy…

Bezos started BO around the same time as SpaceX, and has spent just as much money if not more, and accomplished next to nothing. He will need to pour many additional billions in to even make a race of it, the way the BO turtle moves.

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

#82

Post by valuearb »

grondilu wrote: post #77
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.

BO's New Sheppard is far advanced into sending tourists into space, albeit not in orbit.

It's only about 10% of the way to orbit. It's practically a toy.

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

#83

Post by valuearb »

gozur88 wrote: post #6
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.

I think it would be far more correct to say "Mr. Musk faces potential competition from another billionaire." Though ULA is buying engines from BO.

ULA isn't buying anything from BO. They have an option to if BO makes far more progress.

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

#84

Post by valuearb »

le-mark wrote: post #18
gozur88 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be far more correct to say "Mr. Musk faces potential competition from another billionaire." Though ULA is buying engines from BO.

The BE-4 is an impressive engine [1], at 550,000 lbs of thrust it's about 1/3 of a Saturn F1[2], and it's stage combustion lox/methane. Blue Origin is building some impressive hardware. What's interesting to me is the dichotomy between Musk and Bezos vision for humanity in the Solar System. Musk is Mars focused almost exclusively. Bezos has talked about space habitats (O'neil cylinders for example [3]) as how he thin…

The BE-4 is an impressive idea for an engine. It's never had a successful test fire, and is behind the Raptor in development.

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

#85

Post by skinnymuch »

Forbes seems to have always been wrong about Musk's net worth unless I'm missing how it works. By my estimations, now he should be worth around $23B. $11B from Tesla. $11.5B from SpaceX.

Obviously they haven't updated for this news yet, but they still won't be at $23B.

Regardless, going from having invested all is PayPal money by 08 and in dire straits to being $20B+ 9 years later is awesome. And depending on what narrative you believe, money to this degree isn't what he cares about anyway.

Kudos to Elon, SpaceX, and everyone working there.

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

#86

Post by skinnymuch »

It's surprising how little money was taken in this round. You'd have expected something closer to $1B. I'm sure $350M will help enough and it has been over 2 years since the last funding. So maybe it's fine. They can keep raise again soon if need be.

Especially with Bezos pumping $1B into Blue Origin a year.

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

#87

Post by jpatokal »

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 ?

The article says 7 venture-backed companies, but this awkward adjective was dropped from the title.

Saudi Aramco is indeed much more valuable than the lot combined, but it's not exactly a startup.

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

#88

Post by gozur88 »

dancole wrote: post #15
gozur88 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes. That's the entire point of a corporation.

"The idea that all of the world should be measured in dollars to stockholders is actually a relatively new idea. It used to be that we thought that businesses had their purpose. Your purpose was to be making newspapers or fountain pens or whatever. And now we act as though the only purpose of a business was to enrich the people who trade it on Wall Street… Of course you’ve got to have profit, of course you’ve got to…

How many centuries ago was that? Do we really want to go back to a world where the biggest threat to your life was starvation?

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

#89

Post by gozur88 »

joshuas wrote: post #14
gozur88 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes. That's the entire point of a corporation.

You're only a slave to voting shares. We're about to watch this play out with Snap.

Yes, because the people with voting shares gave you money in the hopes they would make something from their investment.

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

#90

Post by ttam »

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.

Plug: why Amazon has a load of terrible products http://constantbetasoftware.com/2015/12/11/bezos-amazon-cult...
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