SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands at the base of a prototype Starship rocket at the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
Steve Jurvetson on Flickr
Elon Musk told SpaceX employees last week that the company is unlikely to list its Starlink satellite internet business until 2025 or later, CNBC has learned, further extending the estimated timeline for an IPO.
“I don’t know exactly when that is [IPO] is, but maybe it will be — I don’t know, I’m guessing — in three or four years,” Musk said at a meeting of all employees at the private company on Thursday, according to an audio recording from CNBC.
Musk emphasized, as he has previously, that the Starlink deal needs to be “in a smooth sailing situation” with “good predictability.” At this point, “I think spinning it off as a public company can make a lot of sense,” Musk said.
Starlink’s recent schedule for an IPO represents another delay and comes despite repeated requests from a variety of investors over the years to own a piece of SpaceX — a stock that remains privately traded.
Musk had eyed an offer earlier this year, according to an email to SpaceX employees obtained by CNBC. The email Musk sent in May 2019 reads, “It will probably make sense to list Starlink in about three years.”
SpaceX’s CEO then pushed back that estimate, saying in a tweet last year that it would be “at least a few years before Starlink earnings are reasonably predictable,” adding that “an earlier IPO would be very painful.” “.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Musk’s comments.
SpaceX’s Starlink network is designed to deliver high-speed internet across thousands of low-Earth orbiting satellites anywhere in the world. The company announced late last month that Starlink now has over 400,000 subscribers around the world. SpaceX has so far launched about 2,500 satellites to support the system.
While SpaceX offers a variety of Starlink products and services, the company’s base price of $110 per month and the company’s latest subscriber numbers suggest annual services revenue in excess of $500 million per year.
A Starlink satellite terminal, also known as a dish, is placed in front of an RV.
SpaceX
Musk warned employees during his comments Thursday that they “shouldn’t think that going public is like a surefire way to get rich.”
“Public markets are fickle” and “really whip you when you underperform,” Musk said.
Musk has had an often contentious relationship with public company regulations. In 2018, he agreed to pay millions in settlement fees to the Securities and Exchange Commission in response to fraud allegations related to an abandoned take-private plan at his electric vehicle company Tesla. He’s also currently battling with Twitter over a proposal to make the social media company private.
“Being public is definitely an invitation to pain,” he told SpaceX employees Thursday. “And the stock price is just a distraction.”
SpaceX continues to raise billions in capital to develop both Starlink and its gargantuan Starship rockets. The company’s valuation reached $127 billion in its latest funding round.
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