Mountain towns around the world transformed into hot beds of tech during the pandemic, as distributed workforces found their way there in search of fresh air and a healthier environment. At North Ridge Partners we’ve been studying successful tech mountain towns like Boulder, Colorado and Bend, Oregon in our quest to help Queenstown - our spiritual home in the Southern Alps of New Zealand - to build out its own tech ecosystem.

Enjoy, from all of us at North Ridge Partners…

Original Thinking From North Ridge Partners

• We’re working with entrepreneurs, techies, Government and the local university to plan a long-term economic transformation for Queenstown, New Zealand. Our interest in this subject is more than academic - click here to read about it. 

• Boulder and Bend are both mountain towns with well-developed tech ecosystems. We’ve been studying them - click here to see what we’ve learned. 

• In this month’s minicast, Roger Sharp outlines why Queenstown needs to diversify its economy, and the role that tech can play - click here for this month’s minicast.

• It must be the mountain air, with all these elevated communities around the world building world class tech ecosystems! Here’s some music to help you reach the peak.

Asia Pacific Tech News

• Tencent shifts its M&A strategy to control investments in gaming companies as the behemoth looks for growth.

• Here come the Koreans! South Korean search giant Naver agrees to buy US secondhand apparel site Poshmark for US$1.2bn.

• Seeking to diversify its supply chain, Apple turns to India.

• What is it about the Aussie telcos and cyber breaches? Optus works to salvage its reputation as Telstra is hacked.

Markets Action

• U-turn! Tesla chief agrees to buy Twitter for his original bid price. The jury is out on whether Musk really wants Twitter - or is he trying to avoid his day in court? 

• Public listings have come off the boil, as the worst conditions since the GFC bite.

• However, if China and the US patch up their audit dispute, Nasdaq could host a healthy pipeline of Chinese IPOs. 

• Aussie tech takeover frenzy – bidders aplenty line up to acquire ASX listed tech companies – but what are the chances of these deals closing?

Big Tech

• The world’s tech giants signal their pessimism in the near-term economic outlook.

• Meta turns on its interns: internships pulled and workforce to shrink as the Zuck talks of a leaner Meta emerging from the downturn.

• Former Uber security chief convicted of five-star data breach cover up.

• Too busy tweeting: Musk loses US$15.5bn in one day as Tesla tanks.

Stuff We Found Interesting

• The kind of crash we want to see – NASA satellite smacks into asteroid.

• Did Larry Ellison overstep the mark? Not everyone agrees that Oracle’s data cloud covers 70% of the world’s population.

• More morbidity as layoffs website counts the 86,000 people laid off by startups in 2022.

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 services. We’re experienced deal makers who have built, run, and sold numerous technology companies.

Contact us here.

© North Ridge Partners 2021