Picking up Steem - #7 - Stumbling into SPCE (Virgin Galactic)

This is a story of how I unexpectedly became a holder of a tiny number of Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) shares.

Challenger Space Shuttle Launch - Free photo on Pixabay. I couldn’t find a public domain photo of Virgin Spaceship One, and this is the coolest space craft photo I could find.

Last week I noticed a few share of $SPCE hanging out in an account. I had no idea how it got there and it took me a while to figure out what happened. $SPCE is the stock symbol for Richard Branson's space tourism company, Virgin Galactic. It was just listed on the market starting 10/28/2019.

The story starts almost 2 years ago, in December 2017. I came across this dude named Chamath Palihapitiya. He was on TV talking about being an ex-Facebook-executive and how Facebook rips apart society. After researching and watching a few more interviews, I thought he is a pretty smart dude.

I learned he is CEO of a company called Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp, which is publicly traded on the stock market. So I thought here’s a smart guy who leads a public company, why not buy a few shares and see what happens.

I watched the $IPOA stock ticker for months but it didn’t really move much. The market price consistently stayed around $10 per share. I lost interest and stopped paying attention. I also did not know much about the company.

Fast forward to 10/28/2019. $SPCE randomly shows up in my account. It takes a few days to realize $IPOA has disappeared. What happened?

Turns out $IPOA is what is called by the SEC a “blank check company”. This type of company does not have a business plan and exists to seek a merger or acquisition. That’s exactly what happened, a merger. IPOA served as a public investment vehicle for Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic wanted to go public and become the first publicly traded space tourism company. This goal was achieved through a merger. Social Capital Hedosophia takes 49% stake in the new combined company and Chamath Palihapitiya becomes the chairman of the board. And all IPOA shares become SPCE shares.

Somehow I was oblivious while all of this was going down. I was very amused when I figured out what happened. And it’s pretty cool to be able to participate in this even as a minuscule stake holder. I am a fan of space exploration and I’m excited to be involved.

Thanks for reading!

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