Posted by cheap?, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jun 27, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram. Instagram has 13 employees and zero profits. Now Loral goes for the same price. Presumably, Loral has numerous factories and thousands of employees. Is Loral massively under-priced or is their business model obsolete?

Posted by Hulkamania, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Jun 27, 2012 at 12:36 pm

A better question might be, who was the bigger sucker in their purchases?

Posted by Karen, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jun 27, 2012 at 12:46 pm

Loral will be turfed out, then obliterated, similar to Syntex/Roche. There goes the tax base. The upside is that low cost housing can replace those buildings once they are torn down. That should make all the local do-gooders feel good.

Posted by Buy-The-Numbers, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 27, 2012 at 12:51 pm

Here's some financials for Loral ..

LORAL REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER AND YEAR END 2011 FINANCIAL RESULTS:

Web Link

Posted by lazlo, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 27, 2012 at 6:26 pm

...another superfund site goes on the market for housing. Always funny how city council likes to put low income housing on superfund sites, but can't figure out why JCC built their campus on a superfund site? To the poster who brags that Facebook was smart enough to spend $1,000,000,000 on a company with no product, well, still lots of $38 shares on the market [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff].

Posted by VoxPop, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 27, 2012 at 8:18 pm

Actually, this looks like a pretty good fit for MDA. [Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff]. SS/L is a significant player in the global satellite market and MDA seems to concentrate on the entire data stream, from acquisition through analysis and application. Satellites gather information and send it back to earth.

Posted by Hal, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Jun 28, 2012 at 11:40 am

Man, I remember when it was Philco Ford.

Posted by Carlito waysman, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 28, 2012 at 1:02 pm

[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]

Posted by David, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 28, 2012 at 2:48 pm

One building at the old Phillco, Ford Aerospace, Loral site in Palo Alto was too expensive to move (space simulator). If they're still using it, the new company may keep the site just for that facility.

Posted by resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 28, 2012 at 3:52 pm

As far as I know, Loral is expanding. They just got approval for a satellite testing facility on their Fabian campus.

Posted by Save our businesses, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jun 29, 2012 at 9:10 am

I'm worried they'll shut down their Palo Alto operations. More condos and overcrowded schools will follow suit.