Space company Astra going private to avoid bankruptcy

Rocket LV0006 tilts during liftoff.

Astra / NASASpaceflight

Space company Astra will go private in a cut-rate deal with its founders after a dismal run as a publicly-traded stock.

Astra co-founders Chris Kemp and Adam London – CEO and CTO, respectively – signed an agreement with the company’s board to acquire all outstanding common stock at 50 cents a share. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

A special committee of the board, with Kemp and London abstaining, voted in favor of the take-private plan. After the founders last month cut their offer from $1.50 a share to 50 cents, the board’s committee emphasized it believed the deal was “the only alternative” to filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Astra’s stock, halted at 85 cents a share near the time of the announcement, closed at 58 cents a share Thursday.

The company’s market value is about $13 million at current levels, a sliver of the $2.6 billion equity valuation it went public at via a SPAC three years ago.

Sign up here to receive weekly editions of CNBC’s Investing in Space newsletter.

The San Francisco-area company, incorporated in 2016, once aimed to mass produce small rockets and conduct launches as often as daily.

Since its stock debut, Astra’s rockets reached orbit twice – but the company also suffered three launch failures.

An Astra Spacecraft Engine during testing.

Astra

Its rocket-launching business has been on hiatus since a June 2022 mission failure. Despite acquiring a spacecraft propulsion business, the company was unable able to drive meaningful quarterly revenue and conducted layoffs last year in a bid to survive.

The company recorded more than $750 million in net losses since announcing it would go public.

Source link

Denial of responsibility! NewsConcerns is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave a Comment