Is there any other conceivable investor out there with the financial ability and technical knowledge to finish OneWeb?
Chris QuiltyFounder and Partner, Quilty AnalyticsClaude RousseauResearch Director, Northern Sky ResearchJanice StarzykVice President of Commercial Space, Bryce Space & Technology
Apologies if this is a dumb question. Richard Branson is worth four billion dollars and in need customers for launcher one, right? Launcher one is already signed to launch OneWeb sats, correct? Is he not a possible buyer? Trouble in his industry and in the oil patch may preclude this, but is it even a possibility?
Quote from: matthewkantar on 04/03/2020 10:09 pmApologies if this is a dumb question. Richard Branson is worth four billion dollars and in need customers for launcher one, right? Launcher one is already signed to launch OneWeb sats, correct? Is he not a possible buyer? Trouble in his industry and in the oil patch may preclude this, but is it even a possibility?Virgin Communications or Virgin Telcomm might be possible.
Quote from: russianhalo117 on 04/03/2020 10:41 pmQuote from: matthewkantar on 04/03/2020 10:09 pmApologies if this is a dumb question. Richard Branson is worth four billion dollars and in need customers for launcher one, right? Launcher one is already signed to launch OneWeb sats, correct? Is he not a possible buyer? Trouble in his industry and in the oil patch may preclude this, but is it even a possibility?Virgin Communications or Virgin Telcomm might be possible.Virgin Group, the parent company, is in deep financial trouble right now. They are very heavily exposed to transportation. Their airline and train businesses have been decimated by the virus. They're in no position to throw billions at OneWeb.For all this speculation about possible buyers, please keep in mind that OneWeb knew for a few weeks before the bankruptcy filing that Softbank would not be giving them more money. They must have been looking anywhere they could think for funding. Even if they couldn't get funding pre-bankruptcy, if they had found anyone willing to invest to keep the business going post-bankruptcy, they would have filed a pre-packaged bankruptcy. The new investor would have offered them debtor-in-possession financing so they could keep operating through the filing. They would not have laid off most of their employees. They would not have said in their filing that they planned to auction off their spectrum.OneWeb itself couldn't find anyone to buy the company out of bankruptcy and finish their constellation. It's quite unlikely that someone will magically show up now that OneWeb themselves couldn't have found already.
1) I really don't think Jeff Bezos is interested in launching OneWeb on Soyuz. He would only be interested in launching stuff on his BO New Glenn rocket, and that won't launch until 2021 and won't really be launching much until 2024-2025. I expect their first few years will only have a few launches as they figure out their cadence. Falcon 9 only launched twice per year for the first few years.
The customer, Collar said, doesn’t care what orbit they are getting their connectivity from, “There’s no religion about it ... is it MEO or [Low-Earth Orbit] LEO or GEO? ... For us, it will be a mix, it will be integrated and most of the time the customers won’t know what they’re on.”
Maybe SES is interested in integrating it into their network.QuoteThe customer, Collar said, doesn’t care what orbit they are getting their connectivity from, “There’s no religion about it ... is it MEO or [Low-Earth Orbit] LEO or GEO? ... For us, it will be a mix, it will be integrated and most of the time the customers won’t know what they’re on.”http://interactive.satellitetoday.com/via/satellite-2020-show-daily-day-3/beyond-geo-major-operators-have-a-multi-orbit-focus/Then again, he goes on to say that MEO is the right balance for low latency and LEO not yet cost effective.
Softbank has obviously lost interest in the OneWeb constellation. But they won't just give away their shares.
Quote from: GWR64 on 04/04/2020 07:46 amSoftbank has obviously lost interest in the OneWeb constellation. But they won't just give away their shares.I think you're unclear on the concept of bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means Softbank's shares are worthless. So are the shares of everyone else who owns stock in OneWeb. The job of the bankruptcy court is to try to get as much money as possible to distribute among the creditors.
The U.K.-based company has raised $3.4 billion, but outside analysts estimated the satellite system would require as much as $7.5 billion to complete.OneWeb’s filing shows $2.1 billion in total liabilities, including $1.7 billion in senior secured financing plus money owed to between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors.
Now, as founder of OneWeb, he wants to bring even more coverage to the world, by setting up a constellation of hundreds of mini-satellites, which will live 750 miles away from the Earth’s surface, a project that will likely cost $2 billion, according to Wyler.
Wyler said that with the satellite builder, launch-service providers and ground-system manufacturers now lined up, he is confident that OneWeb’s total capital cost will be in the previously estimated range of $2.5 billion to $3 billion.
Quote from: ChrisWilson68 on 04/04/2020 08:06 amQuote from: GWR64 on 04/04/2020 07:46 amSoftbank has obviously lost interest in the OneWeb constellation. But they won't just give away their shares.I think you're unclear on the concept of bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means Softbank's shares are worthless. So are the shares of everyone else who owns stock in OneWeb. The job of the bankruptcy court is to try to get as much money as possible to distribute among the creditors.But OneWeb is not in bankrupcy yet. They have filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy protection.
The company still exists. Shares are not automatically worthless, and can, in principle, be sold for any price (although practically, the price you can expect someone being willing to pay for them would be fairly low.)OneWeb have four months to figure out a reorganization plan that could make it solvent again, and then the creditors must agree to that plan. In the meantime, the company still exists, and can continue to operate at some level.
I think people are confusing bankruptcy types. Chapter 7 bankrupty is "liquidation". Chapter 11 is "reorganization". Basically, OneWeb is proposing having a court adjudicate their creditor repayment plan.
How about this scenario; I want to offer my own internet constellation but I was late to the spectrum auction party and got nothing. But, if I buy the OW spectrum at a reasonable price and then continue to finance the JV to build out the constellation to maintain the rights, then I can begin to design & build my own system to utilize that spectrum. Then I transition from the OW design to mine. The money spent is my payment to secure the required spectrum and maybe along the way the DARPA Blackjack project might lead to some business to recoup that cost, or just shut it down. Either way, I have secured the needed spectrum for my project.The most useful and valuable asset that OW has to someone wanting to start their own constellation is that spectrum. It will be easy to request changes to an existing license, just ask StarLink.
Quote from: Rocket Rancher on 04/04/2020 04:07 amHow about this scenario; I want to offer my own internet constellation but I was late to the spectrum auction party and got nothing. But, if I buy the OW spectrum at a reasonable price and then continue to finance the JV to build out the constellation to maintain the rights, then I can begin to design & build my own system to utilize that spectrum. Then I transition from the OW design to mine. The money spent is my payment to secure the required spectrum and maybe along the way the DARPA Blackjack project might lead to some business to recoup that cost, or just shut it down. Either way, I have secured the needed spectrum for my project.The most useful and valuable asset that OW has to someone wanting to start their own constellation is that spectrum. It will be easy to request changes to an existing license, just ask StarLink.The mention of DARPA Blackjack piqued my interest.Is there an outside possibility of US DoD purchase, either through something sneaky via DARPA, or as part of some fast acquisition authority within DoD?
