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Rocket Lab to go public via merger with SPAC VACQ

Peter Beck, Rocket Lab Founder & CEO joins the Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss the news of Rocket Lab nearing a merger deal with a SPAC to go public.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Well, SPACs once again are hitting the space industry with Rocket Lab-- well, rocket company-- Rocket Lab announcing a deal here in merging with vector acquisition of SPAC focused on that endeavor, in a deal that values Rocket Lab at $4.1 billion in terms of an enterprise valuation, and gives total cash balance now of $750 million once that deal goes through.

Importantly, the company has been expanding in both launches on behalf of the government, as well as national security payloads. And for more on where this company goes from here as the space race continually heats up-- getting very intense right now-- joining us is the CEO and founder of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck.

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Peter, thanks again for taking the time to chat. You know, I mean, we've seen a lot of different companies now start to really raise some serious cash when it comes to building out efforts in space. But how does maybe Rocket Lab look at this differently in terms of what you guys are focusing in on?

PETER BECK: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yes, you know, we're super excited to bring a really high quality asset to the public markets and also partner with a big acquisition corporation, you know, through this SPAC merger to do so. But I think, you know, what's a little bit unique about Rocket Lab, within this industry there is certainly a lot of ambition and a lot of grand-- grand events, but a little bit shy on execution.

And Rocket Lab has continued to execute over and over again. With the small launch vehicle we developed, Electron, we're the second most frequently launched US vehicle, and actually the fourth most frequently launched rocket in the world. And part of Rocket Lab's DNA and history is just that solid execution. But not just execution across launch, but also execution across spacecraft.

So the really exciting thing about this deal is, is this really enables us to accelerate that not just on the launch side, but also on the spacecraft side, and ultimately allow us to create a complete end to end platform where customers and service providers can come to us, where we can do complete end to end pure play within the space sector.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about how you plan to use the capital raised here to use-- of course, many of our viewers familiar with Rocket Lab for your small-- as a small launch provider. But you've talked about using some of this capital to fund the development of medium lift launch vehicles. What's the growth you see on that front? Is that kind of the direction that Rocket Lab is going in?

PETER BECK: Yeah, look, I mean, we've always been good at picking the market niches. And we picked up with small launch and kind of owned that category. And one of the wonderful things about launching such a variety-- and you know, it delivered 97 satellites to orbit-- for such a variety of customers is we know their businesses, and we know where everybody's going.

And if you look at what's actually happening within the industry, over 80% of all the satellites that are going to be launched here in the next decade or so are these bigger constellations. But the one thing that's missing in the industry is a launch vehicle to successfully deliver all of those constellations to orbit, hence the reason why there's a real need in the marketplace for a medium lift launch vehicle to service that.

ZACK GUZMAN: It's pretty insane to think about, kind of, the path to profitability here when we're talking about streaming companies still not being able to turn a profit. But you guys have a projection that you'll be EBITDA positive by 2023 after adjustments. Is that more due to maybe the costs falling in terms of your rocket technology and what you guys are able to do? Or is it more due to the backlog and maybe pricing power that space companies have here as customers try to tap you guys and others to really get their goals accomplished?

PETER BECK: Yeah, I mean, firstly, we have multiple years of revenue. So when we're looking out here, these are backlog customers. And we have a very clear understanding of both the backlog, but also when we model this, we model not only the back end but also tops down, and triangulate those together to give us some good confidence in those projections. And what-- like I said, one of the wonderful things about actually launching and doing it so frequently is, it can give us strong confidence in those numbers.

AKIKO FUJITA: And Peter, you talked about what differentiates Rocket Lab from the competition. But when you look overall in the space, there are more than 100 small rocket ventures. I have to wonder if this area is ripe for consolidation. How many of these companies do you think ultimately survive?

PETER BECK: You know, I mean, my personal view is there'll be a small-- small group of companies that will survive in small launch, and a small group of companies that will survive in the medium to large. And ultimately, I think companies will consolidate down to being satellite and launch companies.

If you take Rocket Lab, for example, we're well known for our small launch vehicle, but we started our space systems division in 2019. And by the end of last year, we had one mission going to the moon, this year two missions to Mars, a propellant depot on orbit for NASA. So having both the launch element and also the spacecraft element is hugely important.

And as we think about how we grow more in the future, combining those two elements enables us to push into the space applications market. And when I say space applications, that's all the services and data that comes from space to help us down on Earth. And that's where the really large teams are. So if you have your own rocket and you have your own spacecraft, then your ability to move into those verticals and be very effective in there is very powerful.

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, it is fascinating to see the growth and innovation in this space. Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, it's great to have you on today.