Displaced in time, the current SpaceX valuation of $10B is identical to Cerent’s 1999 valuation of $10B, when the privately held optical transport company was toying with going public or being acquired. The recently announced Google-Fidelity investment of $1B represents a 10 percent stake in SpaceX.
In another striking parallel between SpaceX of 2015 and Cerent of 1999 is the objective of improving Internet access. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has been publicly promoting the use of satellites to deliver Internet capability to remote regions of our planet.
Just 16 years ago, Cerent’s CEO Carl Russo, described how the Cerent 454 product provided the capacity and connectivity across metropolitan networks to improve Internet access for all PC users, while still maintaining high quality voice traffic.
Cost to customers is paramount in their decision-making on which technology to use. Just like NASA and other potential customers hope to see the costs of launching payloads into space cut in half, service providers of the late 1990s/early 2000s enjoyed the costs of optical transport being halved by deploying Cerent’s pioneering MSPP, the Cerent 454.
In another striking parallel between SpaceX of 2015 and Cerent of 1999 is the objective of improving Internet access. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, has been publicly promoting the use of satellites to deliver Internet capability to remote regions of our planet.
Just 16 years ago, Cerent’s CEO Carl Russo, described how the Cerent 454 product provided the capacity and connectivity across metropolitan networks to improve Internet access for all PC users, while still maintaining high quality voice traffic.
Cost to customers is paramount in their decision-making on which technology to use. Just like NASA and other potential customers hope to see the costs of launching payloads into space cut in half, service providers of the late 1990s/early 2000s enjoyed the costs of optical transport being halved by deploying Cerent’s pioneering MSPP, the Cerent 454.
Big and bold ideas appear to be valued at $10 billion, regardless of the decade in which they appear, just be sure to have the product functionality AND economics right.