Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company is making hundreds of employees redundant as it recovers from a less than successful space mission earlier this year.
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“Painful” Decision
It has been reported that the company announced in a call today that it would be laying off 10% of its 14,000 employees, equivalent therefore to 1,400 jobs. “We just came to the painful conclusion that we aren’t set up for the kind of success that we really wanted to have,” chief executive Dave Limp told employees in the meeting announcing the layoffs. It is understood that the decision has been made to allow Blue Origin to better marshal its resources to ramp up its rocket launches after years of extensive research and development.
Second Launch is Planned
Its huge New Glenn rocket, named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, had its much-awaited debut launch last month after a series of delays. There were some issues, particularly the failure of its booster to land successfully, but Limp described the launch as a “good first step.” “We had most of the right conditions in the engine but we weren’t able to get everything right to the engine from the tanks,” he said. “We think we understand what the issues are.” Blue Origin, which could face increased competition in the satellite launch market given rival SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s close relationship with President Trump, is hoping to have a second New Glenn launch sometime in the Spring.
Is AMZN a Good Stock to Buy?
On TipRanks, AMZN has a Strong Buy consensus based on 47 Buy and 1 Hold rating. Its highest price target is $306. AMZN stock’s consensus price target is $268.91 implying an 17.09% upside.
