Secretive Palantir lifts veil before Wall Street stock sale
BOSTON (AP) — Palantir Technologies Inc., a data-mining company with deep ties to U.S. intelligence and military agencies, has shed a good deal of its trademark secrecy about its business in filing for a Wall Street stock offering.
Like many other tech companies, it will be going public without ever turning a profit.
In filings with the Security and Exchange Commission Tuesday, Palantir presented a first public look at its financials — which included $580 million in losses last year — and its heavy reliance on government contracts.
It also indicated it is on track to exceed $1 billion in annual revenues. It cited revenues of $481 million for the first half of 2020, up 49% from the year-ago period.
Its 2019 revenues of $746 million were up 25% from the previous year, the company said.
The growth included a big boost from the U.S. Army, from which it has earned $135 million since a favorable September 2018 court ruling forced the Pentagon to consider commercially available products in building its systems. That ruling opened a big door to Palantir.
The document indicated that Denver-based Palantir will sell stock some time this year but did not specify a date. A company spokeswoman declined comment on the filing.
Founded in 2003 by investors including Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and early Facebook investor, Palantir got involved early on in government counterintelligence work with seed money from In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Tuesday’s filing mentions the company's work helping U.S. soldiers counter an epidemic of roadside bombings and assisting Special Forces in the fight against ISIS.
Palantir said it had 125 customers in 150 countries including Airbus, Merck, Credit Suisse and the Danish National Police. Just shy of...
