Tom DeLonge

“Where are you?” pleads Tom DeLonge in Blink-182’s 2003 hit “I Miss You” (and all of those darn funny memes). At the time, we all thought he might’ve been looking for a loved one, but it’s increasingly likely he was searching for alien lifeforms. DeLonge quit the pop punk band over two years ago in order to put more manpower into his UFO research. Since then he’s launched an investigative book series dedicated to the subject matter, spoken to the Hillary Clinton campaign about the extraterrestrial, been referenced by the New York Times, and was even named alien conspiracist UFO Researcher of the Year.

In 2017, the guitarist also famously founded To the Stars Academy, which he’s described as a “powerful vehicle for change” that seeks to create “a consortium among science, aerospace and entertainment that will work collectively to allow gifted researchers the freedom to explore exotic science and technologies with the infrastructure and resources to rapidly transition them to products that can change the world.” To The Stars was able to successfully sell $50 million worth of stock to about 2,500 stargazing investors, but apparently that hasn’t been enough to keep operations afloat.



As Ars Technica point out, a report from the Securities and Exchange Commission indicates that To The Stars has accumulated a $37 million deficit after only being in business for a year. As a result, To The Stars’ future — and our chance at knowing whether aliens truly exist — might be in jeopardy.

“The accompanying financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis, which contemplates the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business,” the report reads. “The Company has incurred losses from operations and has an accumulated deficit at June 30, 2018 of $37,432,000. These factors raise doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” To The Stars hopes to stick around for at least the next 12 months by selling off additional stock.

Update: DeLonge has released a statement to Ars Technica clarifying To The Stars’ financial circumstances:

The approximate $37 million stockholders’ deficit is NOT DEBT as he characterized it but is attributable to stock-based compensation expense. IT IS NOT RELATED TO THE OPERATIONAL RESULTS OF THE COMPANY. The Consolidated Balance Sheets of To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science in the SEC filing quoted by your author clearly shows the approximately $37 million deficit is attributed to Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit). The filing goes on to explain the mechanism for calculating stock-based compensation and details the various grants of stock options by the company.

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