The proposed sale values Beck’s shares at about $93.09 each and represents 0.9% of Rocket Lab’s listed shares outstanding.
- CEO Peter Beck filed to sell 5 million shares worth about $465 million.
- The filing said Beck had not reported sales over the past three months, and the shares trace back to Rocket Lab’s 2021 merger with Vector Acquisition Corporation.
- The sale notice came shortly after Rocket Lab announced its planned $8 billion acquisition of Iridium Communications.
Shares of Rocket Lab (RKLB) slipped 2% overnight late Sunday after CEO Peter Beck filed to sell 5 million shares worth about $465 million, even as Wall Street cheered the company’s Iridium deal.
RKLB stock slid 7% on Monday and extended its slide with another 2% decline in after-hours trading.
RKLB CEO Files $465M Share Sale Notice
A fresh Monday filing showed Beck plans to sell 5 million Class A shares valued at $465.45 million, or about $93.09 per share. The proposed sale represents about 0.9% of Rocket Lab’s 578.75 million shares outstanding listed in the filing.
The shares were acquired in August 2021 upon conversion from preferred shares as part of Rocket Lab’s merger with Vector Acquisition Corporation. The filing said Beck had no reported sales over the past three months.
The filing came shortly after Rocket Lab announced plans to acquire Iridium Communications for $54 per share in cash and stock, implying an enterprise value of about $8 billion. The deal would combine Rocket Lab’s launch and spacecraft manufacturing capabilities with Iridium’s global satellite communications network, L-band spectrum and more than 2.55 million active subscribers.
Beck has pitched the deal as a major shift in Rocket Lab’s model. He said that Rocket Lab already had launch and spacecraft manufacturing, but “the third leg of the stool was always an application.” With Iridium, he said, Rocket Lab becomes a “self-launching company.”
In an investor update, Beck called the combined business a “fully integrated self-launching space superpower,” saying Iridium brings coverage across “every ocean, every mountain and every airway.”
Iridium Completes Aireon Acquisition
Iridium also said on Monday that it completed its acquisition of Aireon, operator of the world’s only space-based ADS-B air traffic surveillance system. The Aireon deal boosts Iridium’s aviation safety and operational data platform.
The Iridium deal has drawn bullish analyst commentary. Several analysts, including Roth Capital, raised their Rocket Lab price targets, saying that the combination of Rocket Lab’s launch and manufacturing assets with Iridium’s network, services, and spectrum creates a “formidable” competitive position against SpaceX and Amazon.
Stifel also backed the deal, saying it turns Rocket Lab into a vertically integrated space platform spanning satellite design, manufacturing, launch and on-orbit services.
RKLB Launch Pipeline In Focus
Investors are also watching Rocket Lab’s launch cadence. The company recently stood down from a QPS Inc. launch attempt for “The Grain Goddess Provides,” a synthetic aperture radar satellite that can be deployed to low Earth orbit. The mission would mark Rocket Lab’s 13th Electron launch of the year and 92nd launch overall.
Rocket Lab has also added NASA work, including three Electron launches tied to the PolSIR and TSIS-2 missions.
How Do Retail Traders Feel About RKLB?
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for RKLB slipped to ‘bearish’ from ‘neutral’ levels a day ago amid a 533% jump in 24-hour message volumes.
One long-time shareholder said that the Iridium deal and RKLB’s pullback below $100 offered a chance to rebuild a position, arguing that traditional valuation debates matter less for “a once in a lifetime company with a once in a lifetime CEO”
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Another user noted the Aireon deal and called it “the greatest and most important acquisition of this space age.”
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RKLB stock has jumped 161% over the past year.
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