Jump to content
The World News Media

TheWorldNewsOrg

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    18,651

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    20

 Content Type 

Posts posted by TheWorldNewsOrg

    Facebook will allow French regulators to "embed" inside the company to examine how it combats online hate speech, the first time the wary tech giant has opened its doors in such a way, President Macron said

    in Topics

    Posted


    via .ORG

    World News

    Rocket Lab

    in Topics

    Posted

    Screen Shot 2018-11-12 at 11.18.50 AM.png

    The pint-sized Electron rocket from Rocket Lab. The U.S.-New Zealand startup successfully completed its first commercial launch in New Zealand on Sunday.

    We feel obligated to mention the launch took place on a sheep farm. We feel even more obligated to mention that it symbolizes a potential shift in the commercial space industry.

    But first, a few more details about the launch:

    • The Electron rocket is 56 ft. tall and can carry a few hundred pounds into space.
    • Its first payload was several satellites...one of which was built by high school students in California.
    • The cost per launch is $5.7 million (compared to $62 million for SpaceX's Falcon 9).

    We think you get the idea: These rockets are much smaller, less expensive, and less powerful than the kind you get from Elon Musk's and Jeff Bezos's space companies.

    And that's why this launch is a big deal

    Sure, enormous rockets with names like the "Falcon Heavy" and "Big Falcon Rocket" will make your jaw drop. But Rocket Lab and dozens of other startups think there's a solid business case to be made for launching smaller, less expensive spacecraft.

    • The thought process: As technology advances, satellites (used for anything from science to telecom to imaging) are shrinking in size.
    • If Rocket Lab and its 100+ competitors in the sector can blast those lightweight payloads into space at lower prices (and, this is key, can do so on a regular schedule), there could be customers lining up.

    Zoom out: We were going to think of the perfect business analogy for what Rocket Lab and co. are trying to do to the commercial space industry...

    ...but its founder and CEO Peter Beck beat us to the punch. "We're FedEx," he told the NYT. "We're a little man that delivers a parcel to your door."

    + Impress your Kiwi friends: The mission, called "It's Business Time," is named after a song performed by New Zealand comedy legends Flight of the Conchords.

    Qualtrics

    in Topics

    Posted

    Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey's larger, faster-growing, and more profitablecousin, was all set for its IPO this week...until a little no-name firm called SAP (that's sarcasm) came along and said, "Forget that—we'll just buy you for $8 billion."

    And it's one for the record books...

    • This would be SAP's second-biggest purchase ever, just behind its $8.3 billion acquisition of travel and expense management firm Concur in 2014.
    • It would also be the biggest-ever acquisition of a VC-backed enterprise software company, per Axios.

    If you're having déjà vu, that's because there's been a couple of these last-minute deals recently:

    A new billionaire family: Scoring an invite to the Smith family's Thanksgiving meal just got a lot more competitive. CEO Ryan Smith founded Qualtrics with father Scott and brother Jared, and together they owned 45.5% of the company before the deal.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Service Confirmation Terms of Use Privacy Policy Guidelines We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.