Timing right for DigitalGlobe IPO - St. Louis Business Journal:

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The private, Longmont-based supplier of satellite digital picturez from space has three notabld boasts todraw investors. It's the more profitable of the two domesticcommercial remote-sensing companies, reporting a $95.8 million profit and $151.7 million in revenue in 2007. It owns the largestt number ofprivate high-resolution satellitexs in orbit, three. Its newest one takess the most-detailed shots ever by a privated satellite. But competitor (NASDAQ: could knock out those last two bragginb points with one summersatellite launch.
"Right now, DigitalGlobd is in the laterthis year, GeoEye will be in the lead," said Jeff an investment analyst who follows the commercial remote sensing industry for Minneapolis-baseed Dougherty & Company LLC. DigitalGlobe fileds to issue stock on the New York Stockk Exchange under thesymbol DGI. Most companiee take at least two months from IPO registration to complet preparations andbegin trading. Chuck DigitalGlobe spokesman, said the company isn't commenting on its IPO.
That givesw the 410-employee company a short summer to gain any bounce with investorx by proclaiming itself the undisputed leader in the Companies need any advantage they can get in the currenIPO market. Only 10 operating companies went publixc in the first three months of the slowest stretch since saidJay Ritter, a University of Florida professord who studies IPOs. Market volatility and low trading pricees make it difficult to predict whether tradiny will be kind tonew shares, he said, but a profitablw company with a clear position in its industryt should be able to go public and do well even now.
"It'fd be impossible to say that quality companies are impervious to the Ritter said. "But they are less subject to its influence." DigitalGlobe needs money to pay investors, and to complete and launcn its WorldView-2 satellite in 2010, estimatedf to cost $283 million. That satellite wouldd again put it ahead of In 2007, Dulles, Va.-based GeoEye had more revenue ($183.7 but less profit ($42.4 million) than did DigitalGlobe. which employs 130 people in Thornton, pland to overtake DigitalGlobe in the space race by launchintgits GeoEye-1 orbiter Aug. 22.
GeoEye-1 will be capablw of taking clear pictures ofthinge one-half meter in size but, unlikw DigitalGlobe's WorldView, it will offer the images in If GeoEye-1 ran into troubld launching or turning on once in orbit -- problems that struc k DigitalGlobe's first two launches 10 yearz ago and nearly killed the company -- GeoEye woul be left with one satellite that has passe its predicted lifespan and another that's 18 months from its projectec longevity. "What we do is not for the fain tof heart," said GeoEye spokesmanh Mark Brender. But as long as both companies have functioninvg satellites tocollect images, their futures seem insurer by demand.
More than half of the companies' revenuer comes from the National GeoSpatial-Intelligence which procures images forthe U.S. militar and intelligence agencies. A tumultuous worls heightens that need and makes such companieas good investments for theforeseeable future, Evansonh said. "The biggest risk for these stockxs is apeaceful world," he said.