Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies) |
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Sep. 30, 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Accounting Policies [Abstract] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Basis of Presentation |
Basis of Preparation
The Company has prepared its unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States of America (“GAAP”) and the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 8 of Regulation S-X of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. In addition, the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the Company’s proportionate share of the earnings or losses of its equity method investments and a corresponding increase or decrease to its investment, with recorded losses limited to the carrying value of the Company’s investment. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated upon consolidation.
Effective January 1, 2022, the Company reorganized its captions in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) to better align the Company’s broad portfolio. As a result, for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, the amounts presented to reflect the impact of the reorganization have been recasted. This resulted in a $6.9 million reclassification between imagery & software analytical services revenue and professional & engineering services revenue and a $6.0 million reclassification between imagery & software analytical service costs, excluding depreciation and amortization and professional & engineering service costs, excluding depreciation and amortization in the Company's unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss).
As previously disclosed in the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, effective January 1, 2022, the Company adopted Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") Topic 842, Leases, using the modified retrospective method, with the cumulative effect of initially applying these updates recognized at the date of initial application. The adoption of this standard is reflected in the amounts and disclosures set forth in this Form 10-Q. In accordance with the adoption on a modified retrospective basis, comparative periods prior to the effective date were adjusted, resulting in a $53 thousand change to selling, general and administrative for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss).
The Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on a historical cost basis, except for certain financial assets and liabilities, including derivative financial instruments, which are stated at fair value. Unless otherwise indicated, amounts presented in the Notes pertain to the Company’s continuing operations.
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| Use of Estimates |
Use of Estimates
The preparation of the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, the disclosure of contingencies at the reporting date, and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. These estimates are based on management’s best knowledge of current events and actions the Company may undertake in the future. Actual results could materially differ from these estimates. Significant estimates made by the Company include, but are not limited to, revenue and associated cost recognition, the collectability of accounts receivable, the recoverability and useful lives of property and equipment, the valuation of equity warrants and warrant liabilities, fair value estimates, the recoverability of goodwill and intangible assets, the provision for income taxes, the incremental borrowing rate to measure the operating lease right of use assets, and stock-based compensation.
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| Investments |
Investments
The Company invests in short-term investments, which generally consist of A-1, or higher, rated corporate debt and governmental securities. The investments are classified as held-to-maturity and have a stated maturity date of one year or less from the balance sheet date. Any investments with original maturities less than three months are considered cash equivalents. As of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the Company’s short-term investments had a carrying value of $17.5 million and $38.0 million, respectively, which represents amortized cost, and an aggregate fair value of $17.5 million and $37.9 million, respectively, which represents a Level 1 measurement based off of the fair value hierarchy. The gross unrecognized holding losses as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022 were $0 and $0.1 million, respectively; there were not any gross unrecognized holding gains as of September 30, 2023 or December 31, 2022.
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| Fair Value of Financial Instruments |
Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The Company accounts for certain assets and liabilities at fair value. Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.
The process for analyzing the fair value measurement of certain financial instruments on a recurring, or non-recurring, basis includes significant judgment and estimates of inputs including, but not limited to, share price, volatility, discount for lack of marketability, application of an appropriate discount rate, and probability of liquidating events. The Company utilizes the market valuation methodology and specific option pricing methodology, such as the Monte Carlo simulation, method to value the more complex financial instruments and the Black-Scholes option-pricing model to value standard common stock warrants and common stock options.
The framework for measuring fair value specifies a hierarchy of valuation techniques based on whether the inputs to those valuation techniques are observable or unobservable. Observable inputs reflect market data obtained from independent sources, while unobservable inputs reflect the Company's assumptions. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1 measurement) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3 measurement).
The three levels of the fair value hierarchy are as follows:
Level 1 Inputs. Inputs are unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities available at the measurement date.
Level 2 Inputs. Inputs are unadjusted quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets and liabilities in markets that are not active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable, and inputs derived from or corroborated by observable market data.
Level 3 Inputs. Inputs are unobservable inputs which reflect the Company’s own assumptions on what assumptions market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability based on the best available information.
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| Revenue Recognition |
Revenue Recognition
The Company generates revenue from the sale of imagery and software analytical services and professional and engineering services. Imagery and software analytical services revenue includes imagery, data, software, and analytics. This revenue is recognized from services rendered under non-cancellable subscription order agreements or variable not-to-exceed purchase orders. Professional and engineering services revenue is generated from both time and materials basis contracts and firm fixed price service solutions contracts and firm fixed price long-term engineering and construction contracts.
The Company generates revenue primarily through contracts with government agencies. Some of the fixed price contracts include multiple promises, which may result in distinct performance obligations. The Company allocates the transaction price to each performance obligation based on the relative standalone selling prices using observable sales transactions where applicable.
In accordance with Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)” (“ASC 606”), the Company uses the five-step model of identifying the contract with a customer, identifying the performance obligations contained in a contract, determining transaction price, allocating
transaction price, and determining when performance obligations are satisfied, which can require the application of significant judgment, as further discussed below.
Revenue is measured at the fair value of consideration received or receivable and net of discounts. The Company applies a policy election to exclude transaction taxes collected from customer sales when the tax is both imposed on and concurrent with a specific revenue-producing transaction. The Company estimates any variable consideration, and whether the transaction price is constrained, upon execution of each contract. The Company did not have any active contracts with significant variable consideration as of September 30, 2023.
Imagery & Software Analytical Services Revenue
Imagery
Imagery services include imagery delivered from the Company’s satellites in orbit via the BlackSky Spectra software platform and in limited cases directly uploaded to certain customers. Customers can directly task our proprietary satellite constellation to collect and deliver imagery over specific locations, sites and regions that are critical to their operations. We offer customers several service level options that include basic plans for on-demand tasking or multi-year assured access programs, where customers can secure priority access and imaging capacity at a premium over a region of interest on a take or pay basis. Imagery revenue is recognized ratably over the subscription period or at the point in time the customer receives access to the imagery.
Data, Software, and Analytics
The Company leverages proprietary AI and ML algorithms to analyze data coming from both the Company’s proprietary sensor network and third-party space and terrestrial sources to provide hard-to-get data, insights, and analytics for customers. The Company continues to integrate and enhance its offerings by performing contract development, while retaining the intellectual property rights. The Company also offers services related to object, change and anomaly detection, site monitoring, and enhanced analytics, through which the Company can detect key pattern of life changes in critical locations such as ports, airports, and construction sites; retail activity; commodities stockpiles; and other sites that contain critical commodities and supply chain inventory.
Our analytics services are also offered on a subscription or consumption basis and provide customers with access to our site monitoring, event monitoring and global data services. Software analytical services revenue derived from data, software, and analytics is recognized from the rendering of analytical and monitoring services over time on a firm fixed price basis, or at the point in time the customer receives access to an analytic product.
Professional and Engineering Services Revenue
The Company performs various professional and engineering services, including providing technology enabled professional service solutions to support customer-specific software development requests, integration, testing, and training, as well as developing and delivering advanced satellite and payload systems for a limited number of customers that leverage the Company’s capabilities in mission systems engineering and operations, ground station operations, and software and systems development.
For firm fixed price professional and engineering service contracts, the Company recognizes revenue over time using the cost-to-cost method to measure progress to complete the performance obligation, ("Estimate at Completion" or "EAC"). A performance obligation's EAC includes all direct costs such as labor and fringe, materials, subcontract costs and overhead. We recognize changes in estimated contract sales or costs and the resulting changes in contract profit on a cumulative basis. If it is determined that a loss is expected to result in an individual performance obligation, the entire amount of the estimable future loss is charged against income in the period the loss is identified. The following table presents the effect of aggregate net EAC adjustments on our professional and engineering services contracts:
(1) For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, we had favorable EAC adjustments of $1.0 million and $1.1 million, respectively, for a new individual professional services contract.
(2) For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, the amounts represent the effect of aggregate net EAC adjustments on two professional and engineering service contracts
During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, there was no revenue recognized from performance obligations satisfied in previous periods.
For contracts structured as cost-plus-fixed-fee or on a time and materials basis, the Company generally recognizes revenue based on the right-to-invoice when practically expedient, as the Company is contractually able to invoice the customer based on the control transferred to the customer in an amount that corresponds directly with the value to the customer of the entity’s performance completed to date.
Imagery and Software Analytical Service and Professional and Engineering Service Costs
Imagery and software analytical service costs primarily include internal labor to support the ground station network and space operations, third-party data and imagery, and cloud computing and hosting services. The Company recognizes stock-based compensation expense for those employees whose work supports the imagery and software analytical service costs we provide to customers, under imagery and software analytical service costs, excluding depreciation and amortization. For those employees who provide these services to support customer-based programs, the stock-based compensation expense is classified under imagery and software analytical services costs.
Professional and engineering service costs primarily include the cost of internal labor for design and engineering in support of long-term development contracts for satellites and payload systems, as well as subcontract direct materials and external labor costs to build and test specific components, such as the communications system, payload demands, and sensor integration. In addition, we also recognize internal labor costs and external subcontract labor costs for our customer-centric software service solutions. We recognize stock-based compensation expense for those employees who provide professional and engineering services support to customers, under professional and engineering service costs, excluding depreciation and amortization.
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| Stock-Based Compensation |
Stock-Based Compensation
Restricted Stock Awards and Restricted Stock Units
The Company has granted restricted stock awards ("RSAs") and grants restricted stock units ("RSUs") to certain employees, for which the grant date fair value is equal to the trading price fair value of the Class A common stock on the date of grant. In order to determine the fair value of its Class A common stock on the date of grant and prior to the Merger, Legacy BlackSky historically performed a valuation analysis using a
combination of market and income approaches. Subsequent to the Merger, the Company uses the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) trading price as the fair value of the Class A common stock for valuation purposes. For all awards for which vesting is only subject to a service condition, including those subject to graded vesting, the Company has elected to use the straight-line method to recognize the fair value as compensation cost over the requisite service period.
Certain of the Company’s outstanding RSUs had performance vesting conditions that were triggered upon the consummation of the Merger. Therefore, since the performance conditions attributable to these RSUs had been met, the Company commenced recording the associated compensation expense, inclusive of a catch-up amount for the service period between their grant date and satisfaction of the performance condition, as of the closing of the Merger. The fair value of the RSUs that include a performance condition is recognized as compensation expense over the requisite service period using the accelerated attribution method, which accounts for RSUs with discrete vesting dates as if they were a separate award. Expense related to stock-based payments is classified in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) based upon the classification of each employees’ cash compensation.
Stock Options
The Company uses the Black-Scholes option pricing model to value all options and the straight-line method to recognize the fair value as compensation cost over the requisite service period. The fair value of each option granted was estimated as of the date of grant. The Company granted options in the nine months ended September 30, 2023. The Company uses the following inputs when applying the Black-Scholes option pricing model:
Expected Dividend Yield. The Black-Scholes valuation model requires an expected dividend yield as an input. The dividend yield is based on historical experience and expected future changes. The Company currently has no plans to pay dividends on its Class A common stock.
Expected Volatility. The Company does not have enough historical share price history; therefore, the expected volatility was estimated based upon the historical share price volatility of guideline comparable companies.
Risk-free Interest Rate. The yield on actively traded non-inflation indexed U.S. Treasury notes was used to extrapolate an average risk-free interest rate based on the expected term of the underlying grants.
Expected Term. For options granted in 2021 through 2023, since there was not a history of option exercises as a public company, the Company considered the option vesting terms and contractual period, as well as the demographics of the holders, in estimating the expected term. For options granted prior to 2021, the expected term was the estimated duration to a liquidation event based on a weighted average consideration of the most likely exit prospects for that stage of development. Legacy BlackSky was privately funded and, accordingly, the lack of marketability was factored into the expected term of options granted. The Company will review its estimate in the future and adjust it, if necessary, due to changes in the Company’s historical exercises.
The most significant assumption used to determine the fair value of the Legacy BlackSky equity-based awards was the estimated fair value of the Class A common stock on the grant date. In order to determine the fair value of its Class A common stock on the date of grant and prior to the Merger, Legacy BlackSky historically performed a valuation analysis using a combination of market and income approaches. Subsequent to the Merger, the Company uses the NYSE trading price as the fair value of the Class A common stock for valuation purposes.
Legacy BlackSky historically adjusted the exercise price of certain outstanding stock options. For each award with an adjusted exercise price, Legacy BlackSky calculated the incremental fair value, which was the excess of the fair value of the modified award over the fair value of the original award immediately before the modification. The incremental fair value was recognized as stock-based compensation expense immediately to the extent that the modified stock option already had vested, and for stock options that were not yet vested, the incremental fair value has been recognized as stock-based compensation expense over the remaining vesting period.
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| Sponsor Shares | Sponsor SharesOn September 9, 2021, BlackSky's predecessor company, Osprey Technology Acquisition Corp. (“Osprey”), completed its merger (the "Merger") with Osprey Technology Merger Sub, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Osprey, and BlackSky Holdings, Inc. (“Legacy BlackSky”). Osprey pre-Merger class B common shares were exchanged for shares of the Company’s class A common stock (the "Sponsor Shares") upon completion of the Merger. The Company accounted for the Sponsor Shares in accordance with the guidance contained in ASC 815-40, under which the Sponsor Shares did not meet the criteria for equity treatment and were recorded as derivative liabilities in the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets as of September 30, 2023. The Sponsor Shares are adjusted to fair value at each reporting period and the change in fair value is recognized in gain on derivatives in the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Warrant Liability |
Warrant Liability
In October 2019, Osprey, BlackSky's predecessor company and special purpose acquisition company, issued 15.8 million public warrants and 8.3 million private placement warrants in connection with its public offering. In March 2023, the Company issued 16.4 million private placement warrants in connection with a private placement of shares of Class A common stock and accompanying warrants (see Note 10 and Note 12). The Company accounts for its warrants as either equity-classified or liability-classified instruments based on an assessment of the warrant’s specific terms and applicable authoritative guidance in ASC 480, “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity” (“ASC 480”) and ASC 815, “Derivatives and Hedging” (“ASC 815”). The assessment considers whether the warrants are freestanding financial instruments that would require classification as a liability under ASC 480, as well as whether the warrants qualify for equity classification or require liability classification after consideration of the guidance and criteria outlined in ASC 815, including whether the warrants are indexed to the Company’s own common shares and whether the warrant holders could potentially require “net cash settlement” in a circumstance outside of the Company’s control, among other conditions that impact classification. This assessment, which requires the use of professional judgment, is conducted at the time of warrant issuance.
For issued or modified warrants that meet all of the criteria for equity classification, the warrants are required to be recorded as a component of additional paid-in capital at the time of issuance. For issued or modified warrants that do not meet all of the criteria for equity classification, the warrants are required to be recorded at their initial fair value on the date of issuance. The Company accounted for the warrants issued in October 2019 and March 2023 in accordance with the guidance contained in ASC 815-40-55-2 as liabilities at their fair value.
As of September 30, 2023, the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets included liability classified warrants, reported as derivative liabilities. The fair value of the public warrants was estimated as of September 30, 2023 using the public warrants’ quoted market price. The October 2019 and March 2023 private placement warrants were valued using a Black-Scholes option pricing model for initial and subsequent measurements. The liabilities associated with the public warrants and the private placement warrants are subject to re-measurement at each balance sheet date until exercised, and any change in fair value is recognized in gain on derivatives in the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss).
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| Transaction Costs |
Transaction Costs
Transaction costs consist of legal fees, accounting fees, placement agent fees, commissions, and other third-party costs related directly to equity issuances and debt restructuring. Transaction costs incurred for equity issuances are allocated to the components of the transaction based on their relative fair market value, including common equity and equity warrants classified as derivatives and, as such, based on the Company's allocation, are either expensed in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) or recorded as a reduction to additional paid-in capital in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of changes in stockholders’ equity and unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets.
The Company also incurred lender fees and other incremental third-party costs associated with its debt Amendment, as described in Note 9 below. Lender fees were capitalized and included in long-term debt - net of current portion in the unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets. Third-party costs associated with the debt modification were expensed in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss).
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| Accounting Standards Recently Adopted |
Accounting Standards Recently Adopted
Effective January 1, 2023, the Company adopted ASU No. 2016-13, “Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments”. The amendments in this update are primarily for entities holding financial assets and net investment leases measured under an incurred loss impairment methodology. The new methodology reflects expected credit losses and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable information to inform credit loss estimates, which includes losses on trade accounts receivable. This ASU was applied on a modified retrospective basis. There were no material impacts to the consolidated financial statements upon adoption.
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