Last week, Elon Musk told SpaceX staff that the company expects to launch its Starlink satellite internet business in 2025 or later; news learned and extended its projected schedule for an IPO.
“I’m not sure exactly when the [IPO] will be, but it might be like Elon Musk don’t know, I think — three or four years from now,” Musk said Thursday at a private company shareholder meeting News audio recording.
Musk stressed that Starlink’s business should be “fluent” with “good predictability. At this point, “I think it makes a lot of sense to break it up as a public company,” SpaceX’s chief executive said.
The recent delay in schedule comes despite repeated questions from various investors over the years about owning a share of SpaceX, a privately traded stock.
Musk submitted the proposal earlier this year, according to an email to news’s SpaceX staff. An email from Musk in May 2019 stated. It might make sense to go public with Starlink in about three years.”
Musk later rejected the assessment, saying in a tweet last year that it would be “at least a few years. Before Starlink’s earnings become fairly predictable,” adding that “an earlier release would have been very painful.”
Late last month, the company announced that Starlink has more than 400,000 subscribers. SpaceX has so far launched around 2,500 satellites to support the system.
Musk warned his staff in comments Thursday that “don’t think that posting something is a surefire way to get rich.”
“The public market is volatile. And “they hit you with a gun if you don’t live up to expectations,” he said.
Musk has often had controversial relationships with public company regulations. In 2018, he arranged to pay millions in settlement fees with the Securities and Exchange Commission in response to allegations of fraud. Over a discontinued private takeover plan for electric vehicle maker Tesla. He is also bickering on Twitter over a proposal to private the social media company.