Controversial Data Firm Palantir Fetches Market Value of Nearly $22 Billion In Its Debut On the NYSE (bbc.com) 28
US tech firm Palantir, known for supplying controversial data-sifting software to government agencies, has fetched a market value of nearly $22 billion in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The BBC reports: The firm, which launched in 2003 with backing from right-wing libertarian tech investor Peter Thiel and America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), builds programs that integrate massive data sets and spit out connections and patterns in user-friendly formats. The firm - sometimes described as the "scariest" of America's tech giants - got its start working with US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but now supplies software to police departments, other public agencies and corporate clients. It is active in more than 150 countries, including the UK, where it was one of the tech firms the government enlisted this spring to help respond to coronavirus.
In the first half of 2020, Palantir revenue rose 49% year-on-year, topping $480 million. And at its direct listing on Wednesday, in which investors sold some of their existing shares to the public, shares opened at $10 each - above the $7.25 reference price -- giving it a value of roughly $22 billion. Mark Cash, equity research analyst at Morningstar, who has estimated the firm's value at $28 billion -- even higher than the valuation reached on Wednesday -- said the firm is well-positioned in a growing industry. "Data integration at this scale for the government is very complex and I think if you tried to stop spending on that and it just goes away, you're going to have some big problems," he said. "We think it's very hard to switch away from once you're in as a customer." Due to the use of its technology by immigration authorities in the U.S., Amnesty International issued a report (PDF) saying the firm was failing its responsibility as a company to protect human rights with inadequate due diligence into who it is working for.
"Palantir told Amnesty that it had deliberately declined some work with border authorities in the US due to the concerns," notes the BBC. "But the company has also vigorously defended its government work, maintaining that its clients own and control the data. It says it has a team focused on civil liberties issues, but it is government's job to craft policy, not Silicon Valley's."
In the first half of 2020, Palantir revenue rose 49% year-on-year, topping $480 million. And at its direct listing on Wednesday, in which investors sold some of their existing shares to the public, shares opened at $10 each - above the $7.25 reference price -- giving it a value of roughly $22 billion. Mark Cash, equity research analyst at Morningstar, who has estimated the firm's value at $28 billion -- even higher than the valuation reached on Wednesday -- said the firm is well-positioned in a growing industry. "Data integration at this scale for the government is very complex and I think if you tried to stop spending on that and it just goes away, you're going to have some big problems," he said. "We think it's very hard to switch away from once you're in as a customer." Due to the use of its technology by immigration authorities in the U.S., Amnesty International issued a report (PDF) saying the firm was failing its responsibility as a company to protect human rights with inadequate due diligence into who it is working for.
"Palantir told Amnesty that it had deliberately declined some work with border authorities in the US due to the concerns," notes the BBC. "But the company has also vigorously defended its government work, maintaining that its clients own and control the data. It says it has a team focused on civil liberties issues, but it is government's job to craft policy, not Silicon Valley's."
"Controversial Data Firm Palantir"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Controversial Data Firm Palantir
I prefer referring to them as "Privacy rapists Palantir...."
Re: (Score:2)
It is a pretty risky investment, I'm not surprised their initial valuation is below their "real" current value, since there is so much risk of changes in government policy that could erase most of their revenue.
If I thought they were mere data rapists, I'd have a much more bullish opinion. Facebook is a data rapist. There is a reason this company is considered scarier than the other data brokers.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
LOL
Now look up how many countries the US Special Forces are active in. And then you'll understand how many baskets there are.
Re: (Score:2)
Pump and Dump, they are pumping up that price because they face a death sentence. Every country will shut down access to their citizens privacy to local corporations only, not foreign corporation and the foreign country that controls it can ever be trusted with the private information and the ability to target and psychologically manipulate their citizens. Otherwise regime change will be undertaken and not for any real geo-political reason, nope, not even a consideration beyond keeping the 'others' out. The
Re: (Score:2)
wtf are you talking about, if pump and dump was happening, it would be... pumped. It isn't.
Re: (Score:2)
How much money is it making, how great is the risk, what is it's value, it's pumped up alright. How dangerous it is for all the governments that do not control it, "KILL IT, kill it with fire, kill it now, NOW GODAMMIT NOW" or various other words in various other languages to that affect ;DDD. The corrupt establishment should by terrified by the tool and with good reason, it will able able to data pattern analyse every corrupt action and destroy those that committed it, to empower those that control Palanti
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, I see. You have no idea what the words mean.
Re: (Score:2)
Not really. They are more an analytics company, and they are relatively good at that. The privacy raping is done by others, Palantir are just the ones able to tell you if the rape victims end up pregnant as a result.
I've seen some pretty fancy demonstrations from them with machine learning predicting problems based secondary and historical data. They may have some shitty customers (Facebook and the USA government being the smelliest turds of them all), but as an analytics company they would be quite a reaso
Re: (Score:2)
Palantir actually doesn't do much. No, they are not data rapists, they provide the tools for data rapists (and legitimate users). The data belong to their customers.
And their tools are nothing special. They are mostly open source "big data" frameworks pieced together with a nice UI.
I suspect their reputation as "data rapists" serves them well. People like spying on others even though they won't admit it, so they get to Palantir for that reason, even though all they get in the end is a glorified Excel sheet.
Re: (Score:1)
I prefer referring to them as "Privacy rapists Palantir...."
Facebook is a data rapist.
Medium.com posted The Birth and Death of Privacy: 3,000 Years of History Told through 46 Images December 2nd, 2015, that lenses the thresholds of privacy expectations better than the physical assault and criminal battery of rape. Look at the "agreement" between two posters above: First it's Palantir is violating something a human has, or has not, while the second poster declares data is an entity that can have privacy.
I know that's not what the second poster "meant", but there it is in black and white. Th
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
it is government's job to craft policy, not Silicon Valley's
I remember a few officers using that excuse at their trial after WWII was over.
Back in the early oughts (Score:2)
I used a nice little software package called palantir combined with some X-10 cameras and some scripts I wrote to monitor my "neighbors" and to check my porch for package deliveries. Yeah linux both times.
I now use camserv and some USB cameras.
Stupid company name is stupid.
Re: (Score:1)
Back in the early oughts
Yeah? I used a directional pot as a mouse before I'd seen the Mother of All Demos in the early '80s after I wrote a safe-cracking routine with graphics with 1K or RAM. I'd read in Sagan's Cosmos that a virus needs 1.4K of RAM and figured I needed an upgrade.
My point is yours: A frickin' dashboard customized for relational databases is wholly dependent on what databases are trusted to Palantir and since 9-11? The thousands of clearances were ratcheted up to tens of thousands and no one knows at what hundred
better to see it happen (Score:4, Interesting)
It's happening whether we like it or not. With all due respect to people who value their privacy, that ship sailed when we created computers, the internet, and small internet-linked supercomputers stuffed to the gills with sensors that everyone likes to carry around with them at all times. It's going to be almost impossible to dial back the privacy violations without rolling back computers, the internet, and cellphones.
At least Palantir will be subjected to the rigors of the market. At least we will know a tiny bit of what they're doing. The stuff that happens under the hood of the government spy agencies is much harder to monitor and, thus, potentially much more dangerous.
And... Amnesty International is barking up the wrong tree. If they want to see human rights respected, they need to be lobbying for laws and international treaties. Asking tech companies to be more responsible about privacy violations is kind of like asking Cadbury and Hershey to be more mindful about tooth decay issues. Wrong audience people. Please put your effort where it might actually make a difference.
I disagree (Score:2)
With a private company they can and will do anything they can get away with for profit. The only breaks on that are what the government orders and what the shareholders will allow, which given what I know about shareholders is again whatever yields the highest s
Re: (Score:2)
Democracy is dependent on fickle voters and subject to informational manipulation. It's based o
Re: (Score:2)
> At least Palantir will be subjected to the rigors of the market.
That means that they will violate any law for which the fine is smaller than the return, as part of their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.
Governance will be rewarded based on stock price, and corporate behavior will be controlled by the SEC.
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
I'm worried about those we don't know about. (Score:1)
I'm not happy about Palantir's work w/ ICE either, but I agree, we can at least see them trying to build out access controls to prevent unauthorized access to data. Apparently they work for HIPAA related stuff (HHS COVID Tracking, Cancer Research, etc). I think there's a sizeable misconception of how research works too. I saw these articles about people upset that Palantir gets access to NHS (UK) patient data for COVID-19 Tracking, but that statement is misleading. Like any consulting biz, it's the team
Unfortuntate choice of company name (Score:2)
Forgive me if my knowledge of the Lord of the Rings is a bit scanty, but isn't a palantir a device whereby the wizard Saruman connected to the dark lord Sauron? I am not a marketing chap, so maybe associating your company with dark and destructive forces might be a good thing, but my poor old engineer's brain cannot manage to get out of its box.
Re: (Score:2)
The palantiri were used for a long time before Sauron/Saruman got one each:
The palantíri were made by the Ñoldor in Eldamar, likely by Fëanor himself during his time in Aman in the Time of the Trees[1][2], and then given by the Elves to the Númenóreans, who kept them as heirlooms until the Fall of Númenor during the late Second Age. Seven of these stones were rescued and brought to Middle-earth by Elendil and his sons and set in well-guarded towers throughout the Realms in Exil
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you for your detailed reply.
The thing is, folks like me do not know all that stuff, but we have seen the Lord of the Rings films (and maybe read the books ages ago), and that probably goes for many people.
I cannot read the minds of the founders of Palantir, the corporation, but I suspect they are not experts in the lore of Middle Earth. Maybe they want the Saruman/Suaron connection, and that is what worries me.
This is maybe a bit like an elite of enormously powerful financial traders calling themselve
Truth in advertising? (Score:1)
A major theme of the of the palantíri as that they were a poor guide when used to predict outcomes as they obscured whither images shown were form the past or the future. Furthermore a sufficiently powerful entity could manipulate the images shown.