The Space Investor - 🚀 Axiom Facing Liquidity Issues

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• On Tuesday, Forbes released an article giving outsiders a peek into the high profile space startups financials. Despite $500M in total fundraising to date, Axiom is seeking to close a new funding round before 2024 ends.
   
• Like any startup with too much cash, Axiom began over hiring and "ran [the company] like a big government program instead of the resource-constrained startup it really was." With ~1,000 employees, Axiom has undergone layoffs and is asking employees for voluntary pay cuts in return for stock.
   
• “The fundraise rounds were never enough to keep us ahead of the curve and the revenue certainly wasn't closing the gap,” a former executive told Forbes. “With every round...you pay SpaceX, you pay Thales Alenia, you pay your bills and then it's gone."
   
• There also appears to be a lack of business case for ISS tourist trips, with one flight bringing in ~$150M of revenue but incurring the company $167M of costs due to SpaceX.
   
• This is definitely not what the space industry wants to hear from an important name, especially one who is planning to build an ISS replacement. More to come..
   

• Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported rumors that AT&T subsidiary and TPG owened DirecTV and Echostar subsidiary Dish are in nascent discussions about merging the two satellite-TV businesses amid pressure from cord cutting and streaming service pressures. The deal would create the largest US pay-TV distributor at nearly ~20M subscribers.
   
• A merger of this size would likely draw US regular scrutiny. As a reminder, the DoJ previously blocked a merger between the two companies in 2002 due to antitrust concerns.
   
• “Rumors about a potential transaction involving DIRECTV and Dish are nothing new, but we don’t comment on rumors and speculation,” a spokesperson for DirecTV told TheWrap.
   
• SATS shares finished the week +3% higher.
   

• On Wednesday after market close, NASA awarded IM a Near Space Network (NSN) contract for communication and navigation services for missions in the near space region (aka earth's surface to beyond the moon).
   
• The contract has a base period of five years, with an additional five-year option period and a maximum potential value of $4.82B. The initial contract is worth $150M (most investors looked past this part).
   
• Shares jumped +38% the following day and finished out the week +49% higher.

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