Sovereign states, and even corporations, are pondering the first heavy industrial-scale conflict in Europe since the middle of the 20th Century and some of the questions are being answered far from the trenches … in space. C'est la guerre.

Enjoy, from all of us at North Ridge Partners…

Original Thinking From North Ridge Partners

The war in Ukraine has starkly emphasised the contested nature of space, and that’s leading to greater investment in space by governments and companies.

Space companies are likely to benefit as nations reassess their defence capabilities to infinity and beyond. Here’s a look at some businesses with both commercial and defence applications that are well placed to take advantage of the shift.

In this month’s minicast Christin Burns profiles three space businesses which look set to benefit from the increased interest of the defence sector in space assets, spurred by the war in Europe.

Obviously for a Space and Defence flavoured newsletter this month, our monthly playlist is bookended by the Star Wars theme tune and the opening to Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, and filled with plenty of great tunes in between.

Asia Pacific Tech News

SoftBank raises $22 billion by selling Alibaba derivatives.

India becomes a different sort of battleground as gamers get banned.

Is Tata Motors thinking about spinning out Tata Tech?

Have China’s crackdowns on big tech gone so far as to create sovereign risk?

New horizons: China’s young guns set their sights on the future of web development.

Markets Action

Facebook’s big miss as the ad business stumbles and the kids jump to TikTok.

Not all bad news – Amazon strong revenues defy expectations while Alibaba beats the street, despite revenue decline.

iPhone’s strength underpins Apple’s results.

Netflix chills – but not in a fun way.

Earnings and revenue disappointing for Alphabet (but APAC numbers improve).

Bitcoin dump adds almost a billion to Tesla balance sheet.

Warner Bros. Discovery creeps towards a hundred million streaming subscribers, but a miss is still a miss.

Big Tech

Is there a doctor in the house, Alexa?

Meta’s Insta has a mega problem.

Not much summer lovin’ for Elon Musk’s Twitter feed.

Zuck seems worried — what’s up, WhatsApp?

News From The Meltdown

Y Combinator is living on rations.

Robinhood trimming down its band of not-so-merry men (and women).

Another meme stock sizzles, then fizzles.

After record USD 23bn losses, Softbank’s Masayoshi Son confirms job cuts and cost cutting across the Vision Fund.

Stuff We Found Interesting

AI imitates art imitates life. And Capitalism wins again.

Well, this is awkward. Should these connected TVs be … connected, or something?

In space no one can hear you scream… in embarrassment.

North Ridge Partners: technology investment banking across the Asia Pacific

North Ridge Partners works with technology companies across the Asia Pacific to achieve transformational outcomes through providing strategic financial advice, advising on M&A transactions and raising capital. We’re experienced deal-makers who have built, run, and sold numerous technology companies.

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