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Terran Orbital<\/a> CEO Marc Bell\u00a0told employees Monday the company is not looking for a buyer in an effort to quash a report that it was seeking bids by the end of the month, according to sources who spoke to TechCrunch. Bell\u2019s comments came during an all-hands meeting with staff, following a Wall Street Journal article<\/a> stating that the satellite manufacturer was up for sale.<\/p>\n In a separate email simply titled \u201cWSJ,\u201d which was sent to all staff, Bell said the WSJ got the story \u201cvery wrong\u201d and \u201cwe are working with them to correct.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy goal is to keep us independent and turn us into a Prime. Nothing has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n He also had some incendiary words for the group of investors, which collectively represents around 8% of Terran shares, who are leading a charge to have Bell replaced and the board reconstituted:<\/p>\n \u201cAs for shareholder criticism the whole thing is a joke,\u201d he says in the email. \u201cForget that the board and management has over 30 million shares (they have 16 million) but we have polled investors casually and over 100 million shares say they approve of the direction we are taking and fully support us. We also have 100% support of the board. The company recently sued one of the Sophis idiots and we will be suing them all in due course. They will eventually go away.\u201d<\/p>\n The final two lines refer to the investor group, led by Sophis Investments, and a recent suit Terran brought against Austin Williams<\/a>\u00a0(its former CTO) and one of the founders of Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, the company that now makes up the bulk of Terran\u2019s business.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not looking for a buyer,\u201d Bell said, according to sources who were at the meeting. Instead, he told staff that if the board (which he chairs) decided on a take-private deal, Bell and a business partner would buy the company themselves.<\/p>\n Bell did say that the company is looking for strategic investors, similar to Lockheed Martin \u2014 a sizable investor in the company and a main customer.<\/p>\n Terran Orbital did not respond to TechCrunch\u2019s request for comment. TechCrunch will update the article if Terran Orbital responds.<\/p>\n