Maxar deal sheds light on growing value of Planet Labs data, says Northland

After Maxar Technologies (MAXR) announced last week that it agreed to an acquisition by defense and security-focused PE firm Advent International for a 129% premium, Northland analyst Michael Latimore acknowledged that Maxar has a different business model than Planet Labs’ (PL), but he also argued that the acquisition "sheds more light on the growing value of geospatial data." The analyst, who believes Planet is "focused on growing into the earth image data subscription category leader" and contends that potential acquirers would include tech companies like Google (GOOGL), keeps an Outperform rating and $12 price target on Planet Labs shares.