Boeing spent years and hundreds of millions developing eVTOL aircraft through three separate subsidiaries. The things never flew. Not commercially. Not in any way that mattered. Now Boeing's selling all three to Archer Aviation, a company whose primary achievement is not going bankrupt yet.
Archer pays for this acquisition with equity. Boeing gets a stake in Archer. No cash changes hands. This is what happens when two companies that can't build flying cars decide the solution is to become the same company that can't build flying cars.
The subsidiaries include Wisk Aero, which Boeing co-owned and which has been "developing" autonomous eVTOLs since 2010. Sixteen years. The Wright Brothers went from standing in a field to sustained controlled flight in less time than Wisk spent burning through investor capital.
Boeing also throws in Aurora Flight Sciences and an unnamed third subsidiary. Aurora made drones and experimental aircraft. Past tense. Now it'll make experimental aircraft for Archer, which will also not fly commercially.
Retail traders see this headline and think consolidation. They think synergy. They think Archer stock goes up because now it owns Boeing's scraps. They'll buy calls. They'll post rockets on Reddit. They'll explain to their wives that eVTOL is the future and this merger proves it.
What actually happened: Boeing looked at its eVTOL division, calculated how much cash it was incinerating per quarter, and found someone dumb enough to take it off their hands. Archer looked at Boeing's eVTOL division and thought acquiring three failed subsidiaries would make them look legitimate.
Both companies are wrong. But only one of them has retail traders convinced this is bullish.
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