San Francisco: Tech billionaire Elon Musk could spin Starlink off from SpaceX and carry out an initial public offering by 2025, media reports said.
According to tech analyst firm CCS Insight, as Starlink’s “revenue becomes more predictable and it gains more and more users, the company is spun off to raise capital to expand its constellation of satellites” to meet the growing demand for its services, reports CNBC.
“We think it makes perfect sense,” Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, was quoted as saying in an interview.
“Starlink is going to need to invest heavily,” he added.
Wood said an initial public offering (IPO) will help drive investment into SpaceX, push international expansion, and “make Starlink the go-to player for satellite broadband”.
SpaceX executives have spoken about an IPO over the last couple of years. In 2021, Musk said SpaceX would take Starlink public when revenue becomes more predictable.
Earlier this year, Musk told employees an IPO of Starlink was unlikely until 2025 or later, a report said, citing the billionaire’s comments from an all-hands meeting of SpaceX employees.
Musk previously targeted an offering as soon as this year, according to an email to SpaceX employees obtained by CNBC. The email, sent by Musk in May 2019, said “it will probably make sense to take Starlink public in about three years or so”.
–IANS