Raphael Stevens

“Top Gun: Maverick” soared to $124 million during its opening weekend, earning Tom Cruise his highest domestic debut.
The Paramount and Skydance film also generated $124 million internationally, bringing its total opening weekend haul to $248 million.
According to data from Paramount, 55% of moviegoers were over the age of 35.

Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick”
Source: Paramount

LOS ANGELES – “Top Gun: Maverick” soared to $124 million during its opening weekend, earning Tom Cruise his highest domestic debut.
The prolific actor, who has made a name for himself as a fearless stuntman, has generated more than $4.2 billion at the domestic box office since 1981 but had previously never had a film open to more than $65 million.

The Paramount and Skydance film also generated $124 million internationally, bringing its total opening weekend haul to $248 million. The studio expects the film to reach $151 million for the four-day Memorial Day weekend. The film could have a strong hold over the next few weeks as it faces limited box office competition until the June 10 release of Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion.”
“The summer movie season is back,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “The performance of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is a stunning reminder that when you combine one of the last genuine movie stars with great old fashioned story telling, audiences of all ages will rush out to the theater to be a part of the communal bigger than life moviegoing experience.”
The big opening for “Top Gun: Maverick” is a positive sign for the box office, which is still recovering from the ongoing pandemic. The film drew in older audiences, a coveted demographic that has been slower to return to cinemas since they began to reopen in mid-2020.
Around 29% of tickets sold during the weekend were for showings before 3 p.m. and 35% were were for screenings between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., according to EntTelligence. This indicates that a significant chunk of ticket sales were for matinee shows, a time period that older moviegoers gravitate towards.
Only 11% of tickets were sold for showings held after 9 p.m. According to data from Paramount, 55% of moviegoers were over the age of 35.

Around 9 million moviegoers are expected to see “Top Gun: Maverick” over its first three days in theaters, according to EntTelligence. This is more than four times the two million patrons that saw the original “Top Gun” in theaters during its debut in 1986.
Not including Thursday preview screenings, 32% of tickets were sold for premium format showings, with the average ticket price hitting $16.32. Non-premium tickets averaged at around $12.86 a piece, EntTelligence reported.
The film’s strong performance also comes just weeks after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed it had bought 68.9 million shares of Paramount to build a stake worth $2.6 billion as of the end of March.
Paramount was Berkshire’s 18th largest holding at the end of the first quarter. The new stake adds another streaming property to Berkshire’s portfolio, whose top holding is Apple.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Jurassic World: Dominion.”

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Former Disney CEO Bob Iger has made an investment in Australian graphic design company Canva.
Canva announced a $40 billion valuation in September.
Iger has made several investments with his own money since stepping down from Disney’s board in December, including delivery company GoPuff and toy maker Funko.

Bob Iger poses with Mickey Mouse attends Mickey’s 90th Spectacular at The Shrine Auditorium on October 6, 2018 in Los Angeles.
Valerie Macon | AFP | Getty Images

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Reed Hastings, Co-CEO, Netflix speaks at the 2021 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. October 18, 2021.
David Swanson | Reuters

The media and entertainment industry prides itself on its mastery of classical storytelling’s three acts: the setup, the conflict and the resolution.
It’s safe to declare the first act of the streaming video wars over. Barring a surprise late entrant, every major media and technology company that wants to be in the streaming game has planted a flag. Disney+, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Peacock and other new streaming services are spreading around the globe.

“Act one was the land grab phase,” said Chris Marangi, a media investor and portfolio manager at Gamco Investors. “Now we’re in the middle act.”
Last month, the central conflict of the streaming wars came into focus. The industry was thrust into the tumultuous stage after Netflix disclosed its first quarterly drop in subscribers in more than a decade and warned subscriber losses would continue in the near term.

Second act problems

Netflix’s rapid decline after a pandemic-fueled boom has investors questioning the value of investing in media companies.
Streaming is the future of the business, regardless of recent problems, as consumers have gotten used to the flexibility the services offer.
There could be more consolidation to come, and streamers are increasingly embracing cheaper, ad-supported tiers.

That news set off worries about streaming’s future and cast doubt on whether the growing number of platforms could become profitable. At stake are the valuations of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies — Disney, Comcast, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery — and the tens of billions of dollars being spent each year on new original streaming content.
As recently as October, Netflix, whose hit series “Stranger Things” returned Friday, had a market capitalization more than $300 billion, topping Disney’s at $290 billion. But its shares are down over 67% from the start of the year, slashing the company’s worth to around $86 billion. 
Legacy media companies that followed Netflix’s lead and pivoted to streaming video have suffered, too.

Disney shares are among the worst performing stocks on the Dow Jones industrials this year, down about 30%. That’s even though series such as “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Moon Knight” helped Disney+ add 20 million subscribers in the past two quarters. The highly anticipated “Obi-Wan Kenobi” premiered on Friday.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO and HBO Max services also added 12.8 million subscribers over the past year, bringing total subscribers to 76.8 million globally. But shares are down more than 20% since the company’s stock began trading in April following the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery.
Nobody knows whether streaming’s final act will reveal a path to profitability or which players might emerge dominant. Not that long ago, the formula for streaming success seemed straightforward: Add subscribers, see stock prices climb. But Netflix’s shocking freefall has forced executives to rethink their next moves. 
“The pandemic created a boom, with all these new subscribers efficiently stuck at home, and now a bust,” said Michael Nathanson, a MoffettNathanson media analyst. “Now all these companies need to make a decision. Do you keep chasing Netflix around the globe, or do you stop the fight?”

David Zaslav
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Stick with streaming

The simplest path for companies could be to wait and see whether their big money bets on exclusive streaming content will pay off with renewed investor enthusiasm.
Disney said late last year it would spend $33 billion on content in 2022, while Comcast CEO Brian Roberts pledged $3 billion for NBCUniversal’s Peacock this year and $5 billion for the streaming service in 2023.
The efforts aren’t profitable yet, and losses are piling up. Disney reported an operating loss of $887 million related to its streaming services this past quarter — widening on a loss of $290 million a year ago. Comcast has estimated Peacock would lose $2.5 billion this year, after losing $1.7 billion in 2021.
Media executives knew it would take time for streaming to start making money. Disney estimated Disney+, its signature streaming service, will become profitable in 2024. Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max, Paramount Global’s Paramount+ and Comcast’s Peacock forecast the same profitability timeline.
What’s changing, though, is that chasing Netflix no longer appears like a winning strategy. While the company assured investors last quarter that growth will accelerate again in the second half of the year, the precipitous fall in its shares suggests investors no longer view the total addressable market of streaming subscribers as 700 million to 1 billion homes, as CFO Spencer Neumann has said, but rather a number far closer to Netflix’s total global tally of 222 million.
That sets up a major question for legacy media chief executives: Does it make sense to keep throwing money at streaming, or is it smarter to hold back to cut costs?
“We’re going to spend more on content — but you’re not going to see us come in and go, ‘All right, we’re going to spend $5 billion more,'” said Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav during an investor call in February, after Netflix had begun its slide but before it nose-dived. “We’re going to be measured, we’re going to be smart and we’re going to be careful.”
Ironically, Zaslav’s philosophy may echo that of former HBO chief Richard Plepler, whose streaming strategy was rejected by former WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey. Plepler generally argued “more is not better, better is better,” choosing to focus on prestige rather than volume.
While Zaslav has preliminarily outlined a streaming strategy of putting HBO Max together with Discovery+, and then adding CNN news and Turner sports on top of that, he’s now faced with a market that doesn’t appear to support streaming growth at all costs. That may or may not slow down his efforts to push all of his best content into his new flagship streaming product.
That has long been Disney’s choice of approach; it has purposefully held ESPN’s live sports outside of streaming to support the viability of the traditional pay TV bundle — a proven moneymaker for Disney.
Holding back content from streaming services could have downsides. Simply slowing down the inevitable deterioration of cable TV probably isn’t an achievement many shareholders would celebrate. Investors typically flock to growth, not less rapid decline.

Brian Roberts, chief executive officer of Comcast, arrives for the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 9, 2019 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Traditional TV also lacks the flexibility of streaming, which many viewers have come to prefer. Digital viewing allows for mobile watching on multiple devices at any time. A la carte pricing gives consumers more choices, compared with having to spend nearly $100 a month on a bundle of cable networks, most of which they don’t watch.

More deals

Consolidation is another prospect, given the growing number of players vying for viewers. As it stands, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max/Discovery+, Netflix, Paramount+ and Peacock all have global ambitions as profitable streaming services.
Media executives largely agree that some of those services will need to combine, quibbling only about how many will survive.
One major acquisition could alter how investors view the industry’s potential, said Gamco’s Marangi. “Hopefully the final act is growth again,” he said. “The reason to stay invested is you don’t know when act three will begin.”
U.S. regulators may make any deal among the largest streamers difficult. Amazon bought MGM, the studio behind the James Bond franchise, for $8.5 billion, but it’s unclear whether it would want to buy anything much larger.
Government restrictions around broadcast station ownership would almost certainly doom a deal that put, say, NBC and CBS together. That likely eliminates a straight merger between parent companies NBCUniversal and Paramount Global without divesting one of the two broadcast networks, and its owned affiliates, in a separate, messier transaction.
But if streaming continues to take over as the dominant form of viewership, it’s possible regulators will eventually soften to the idea that broadcast network ownership is anachronistic. New presidential administrations may be open to deals current regulators may try to deny.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger press conference at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting, April 30, 2022.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said this month it bought 69 million shares of Paramount Global — a sign Buffett and his colleagues either believe the company’s business prospects will improve or the company will get acquired with an M&A premium to boost shares.

Advertising hopes

Evan Spiegel, CEO of SNAP Inc.
Stephen Desaulniers | CNBC

“Advertising is an inherently volatile business,” said Patrick Steel, former CEO of Politico, the political digital media company. “The slowdown which started in the fall has accelerated in the last few months. We are now in a down cycle.”
Offering cheaper, ad-supported subscription won’t matter unless Netflix and Disney give consumers a reason to sign up with consistently good shows, said Bill Smead, chief investment officer at Smead Capital Management, whose funds own shares of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The shift in the second act of the streaming wars could see investors rewarding the best content rather than the most powerful model of distribution.
“Netflix broke the moat of traditional pay TV, which was a very good, profitable business, and investors followed,” said Smead. “But Netflix may have underestimated how hard it is to consistently come up with great content, especially when capital markets stop supporting you and the Fed stops giving away free money.”

Try something else

The major problem with staying the course is it’s not an exciting new opportunity for investors who have soured on the streaming wars.
“The days of getting a tech multiple on these companies are probably over,” said Andrew Walker, a portfolio manager at Rangeley Capital, who also owns Warner Bros. Discovery. “But maybe you don’t need a tech multiple to do well at these prices? That’s what we’re all trying to figure out right now.”
Offering a new storyline is one way to change the stale investment narrative. Media analyst Rich Greenfield advocates Disney acquire Roblox, a gaming company based on digital multiplayer interactive worlds, to show investors it’s leaning into creating experiential entertainment.
“I just keep thinking about Bob Iger,” Greenfield said of the former Disney CEO, who departed the company in December. “When he came in, he made his mark by buying Pixar. That transformative transaction was doing something big and bold early on.”

Bob Chapek, Disney CEO at the Boston College Chief Executives Club, November 15, 2021.
Charles Krupa | AP

Given the extreme pullback on Roblox shares, Greenfield noted Disney CEO Bob Chapek has an opportunity to make a transformative deal that could alter the way investors view his company. Roblox’s enterprise value is about $18 billion, down from about $60 billion at the start of the year.
But media companies have historically shied away from gaming and other out-of-the-box acquisitions. Under Iger, Disney shut down its game development division in 2016. Acquisitions can help companies diversify and help them plant a flag in another industry, but they can also lead to mismanagement, culture clash, and poor decision making (see: AOL-Time Warner, AT&T-DirecTV, AT&T-Time Warner). Comcast recently rejected a deal to merge NBCUniversal with video game company EA, according to a person familiar with the matter. Puck was first to report the discussions.
Yet big media companies are no longer compelling products on their own, said Eric Jackson, founder and president of EMJ Capital, who focuses on media and technology investing.
Apple and Amazon have developed streaming services to bolster their services offerings around their primary businesses. Apple TV+ is compelling as an added reason for consumers to buy Apple phones and tablets, Jackson said, but it’s not special as an individual stand-alone service. Amazon Prime Video amounts to a benefit making a Prime subscription more compelling, though the primary reason to subscribe to Prime continues to be free shipping for Amazon’s enormous e-commerce business.
There’s no obvious reason the business will suddenly be valued differently, Jackson said. The era of the stand-alone pure-play media company may be over, he said.
“Media/streaming is now the parsley on the meal — not the meal,” he said.
Disclosure: CNBC is part of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.
WATCH: ‘Snap was a leading indicator of the beginning of the weakness in internet advertising in Q1’

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Hospitality and service sectors can’t hire enough workers to staff what’s expected to be a bustling summer.
Microsoft, Meta and other companies have signaled they plan to be more cautious around hiring.
The divergence could mean a slowdown in wage growth, or hiring itself and could curtail spending, which has been robust despite deteriorating consumer confidence.

A help wanted sign is displayed in the window of a Brooklyn, New York business.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Cracks are forming in the U.S. labor market as some companies look to curb hiring while others are desperate for employees.
Microsoft, Twitter, Wayfair, Snap and Facebook-parent Meta recently announced they plan to be more conservative about adding new employees. Peloton and Netflix announced layoffs as demand for their products slowed, and online car seller Carvana cut its workforce as it faces inflation and a cratering stock price.

“We will treat hiring as a privilege and be deliberate about when and where we add headcount,” Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi wrote to staff earlier this month, pledging to reduce costs.
U.S.-based employers reported more than 24,000 job cuts in April, up 14% from the month before and 6% higher than the same month last year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
But airlines, restaurants and others still need to fill positions. Job cuts for the first four months of the year were down 52% compared with the same period of 2021. Just under 80,000 jobs cuts were announced from January to April, the lowest tally in the nearly three decades the firm has been tracking the data.
What’s emerging is a tale of two job markets — albeit not equal in size or pay. Hospitality and other service sectors can’t hire enough workers to staff what’s expected to be a bustling summer rebound after two years of Covid obstacles. Tech and other large employers are warning they need to keep costs down and are putting employees on notice.

Record job openings

U.S. job openings soared to a seasonally adjusted 11.55 million at of the end of March, according to the latest available Labor Department report, a record for data that goes back to 2000. The numbers of employees who quit their jobs also hit a record, at more than 4.5 million. Hires stood at 6.7 million.

Wages are rising but not enough to keep pace with inflation. And people are changing where they spend their money, especially as household budgets tighten thanks to the highest consumer price increases in four decades.
Economists, employers, job seekers, investors and consumers are looking for signals on the economy’s direction, and are finding emerging divisions in the labor market. The divergence could mean a slowdown in wage growth, or hiring itself, and could eventually curtail consumer spending, which has been robust despite deteriorating consumer confidence.

Companies from airlines to restaurants large and small still can’t hire fast enough, which forces them to cut growth plans. Demand snapped back more quickly than expected after those companies shed workers during the pandemic-induced sales plunges.
JetBlue Airways, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines have scaled back growth plans, at least in part, because of staffing shortages. JetBlue said pilot attrition is running higher than normal and will likely continue.
“If your attrition rates are, say, 2x to 3x of what you’ve historically seen, then you need to hire more pilots just to stand still,” JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said at an investor conference May 17.
Denver International Airport’s concessions like restaurants and shops have made progress with hiring but are still understaffed by about 500 to 600 workers to get to roughly 5,000, according to Pam Dechant, senior vice president of concessions for the airport.
She said many cooks are making about $22 an hour, up from $15 before the pandemic. Airport employers are offering hiring, retention and, in at least one case, what she called an “if you show up to work every day this week bonus.”

Consumers “spent a lot on goods and not much on services over the pandemic and now we’re seeing in our card data they’re flying back into services, literally flying,” said David Tinsley, an economist and director at the Bank of America Institute.
“It’s a bit of a shakeout from those people that maybe [had] overdone it in terms of hiring,” he said of the current trends.

Snap back

The companies leading job growth are the ones that were hit hardest early in the pandemic.
Jessica Jordan, managing partner of the Rothman Food Group, is struggling to hire the workers she needs for two of her businesses in Southern California, Katella Deli & Bakery and Manhattan Beach Creamery. She estimates that both are only about 75% staffed.
But half of applicants never answer her emails for an interview, and even new hires who already submitted their paperwork often disappear before their first day, without explanation, she said.
“I am working so hard to hold their hand through every step of the process, just to make sure they come in that first day,” Jordan said.
Larger restaurant chains also have tall hiring orders. Sandwich chain Subway, for example, said Thursday it’s looking to add more than 50,000 new workers this summer. Taco Bell and Inspire Brands, which owns Arby’s, said they’re also looking to add staff.
Hotels and food services had the highest quit rate across industries in March, with 6.1% of workers leaving their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The overall quit rate was just 3% that month.
Some of those workers are walking away from the hospitality industry entirely. Julia, a 19-year-old living in New York City, quit her restaurant job in February. She said she left because of the hostility from both customers and her bosses and too many extra shifts added to her schedule at the last minute. She now works in child care.
“You have to work really hard to get fired in this economy,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management. “You have to be really incompetent and obnoxious.”

Slowdown in Silicon Valley

And if industries in rebound are hiring to catch up, the reverse is equally true.
After a boom in recruiting, several large tech companies have announced hiring freezes and layoffs, as concerns about an economic slowdown, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine curb growth plans.
Richly funded start-ups aren’t immune, either, even if they aren’t subject to the same level of market value degradation as public tech stocks. At least 107 tech companies have laid off employees since the start of the year, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks job cuts across the sector.
In some cases, companies such as Facebook and Twitter are rescinding job offers after new hires have already accepted, leaving workers like Evan Watson in a precarious position. 
Last month, Watson received a job offer to join the emerging talent and diversity division at Facebook, what he called one of his “dream companies.” He gave notice at the real estate development firm where he worked and set a start date at the social media giant for May 9.
Just three days before then, Watson received a call about his new contract. Facebook had recently announced it would pause hiring, and Watson anxiously speculated he might receive bad news.
“When I got the call, my heart dropped,” Watson said in an interview. Meta was freezing hiring, and Watson’s onboarding was off.
“I was just like silent. I didn’t really have any words to say,” Watson said. “Then I was like, ‘Now what?’ I don’t work at my other company.”
The news left Watson disappointed, but he said Facebook offered to pay him severance while he searched for a new job. Within a week, he landed a job at Microsoft as a talent scout. Watson said he “feels good” about landing at Microsoft, where the company “is a lot more stable, in terms of stock price.”

For months, retail giant Amazon dangled generous sign-on bonuses and free college tuition to lure workers. The company has hired 600,000 employees since the start of 2021, but now it finds itself overstaffed in its fulfillment network.
Many of the company’s recent hires are no longer needed, with e-commerce sales growth cooling. Plus, employees who went on sick leave amid a surge in Covid cases returned to work earlier than expected, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said on a call with analysts last month.
“Now that demand has become more predictable, there are sites in our network where we’re slowing or pausing hiring to better align with our operational needs,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNBC.
Amazon did not respond to questions about whether the company foresees layoffs in the near future.

Recession shield

The reductions and hiring shifts are isolated for now, but they have some executives on edge.
“Any kind of news flow … when its high-profile companies around job losses, has the potential to chip away at sentiment a bit,” said Bank of America’s Tinsley, cautioning that the job market is still strong. “Things are not as bad perhaps as the picture some might paint.”
He said the pace of job growth in the service sector will likely begin slowing, however.
JPM’s Kelly said that even if the market lost 3 million openings it would still be a job-seekers’ market.
“There’s strong excess demand for workers. It really shields the economy from recession,” he said.
But job cuts can ripple through other sectors.
A sharp increase in hiring freezes, job cuts, wage stagnation or even a pullback in company spending on things such as employee benefits and a return to business travel could hurt the very service sectors that have thrived as Covid cases fell.
“The question is, ‘Will consumer spending keep its head above water?'” Tinsley said.
— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this story.

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Space companies reported results for the first quarter of the year over the past several weeks – with many CEOs complaining of supply chain disruptions.
Many space companies went public last year through SPAC deals, but most of the stocks are struggling despite the industry’s growth.
CNBC summarized the most recent quarterly reports for Aerojet Rocketdyne, AST SpaceMobile, Astra, BlackSky, Iridium, Maxar, Momentus, Mynaric, Redwire, Rocket Lab, Satellogic, Spire Global, Telesat, Terran Orbital, ViaSat, Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit.

Virgin Orbit’s modified 747 jet “Cosmic Girl” releases the company’s LauncherOne rocket for a mission on January 13, 2022.
Virgin Orbit

Space companies reported results for the first quarter of the year over the past several weeks – with many CEOs complaining of supply chain disruptions pushing back hardware deliveries and launch schedules.
“Everyone’s getting delayed. I haven’t heard from a single satellite operator in the last 12 months – whether they’re a new entrant, whether they’re longstanding operators – everyone’s kind of getting moved to the right a little bit, mostly for the same reasons … the supply chain issues and whatnot,” Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg said during his company’s earnings conference call.

Many space companies went public last year through SPAC deals, but most of the stocks are struggling despite the industry’s growth. The shifting market environment, with climbing interest rates hitting technology and growth stocks hard, have weighed on space stocks. Shares of about a dozen space companies are off 50% or more since their market debut.
Beyond supply chain hiccups, most of the public companies reported continued quarterly losses, as profitability remains a year away or more for many space ventures.
Below are summaries of the most recent quarterly reports for Aerojet Rocketdyne, AST SpaceMobile, Astra, BlackSky, Iridium, Maxar, Momentus, Mynaric, Redwire, Rocket Lab, Satellogic, Spire Global, Telesat, Terran Orbital, ViaSat, Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit – alongside the stock’s year-to-date performance as of Thursday’s close.
Satellite imagery company Planet has yet to report its first quarter results. The company uses a 2023 fiscal year calendar that began on Feb. 1.

Aerojet Rocketdyne: -12%

While the propulsion specialist draws a majority of its $511 million in first quarter sales from defense-related contracts, Aerojet Rocketdyne continues to draw a major portion of revenue from the space sector. The company’s adjusted EBITDA profit for the quarter rose 18% to $69 million, compared to the same period a year prior, with a backlog of $6.4 billion in multi-year contracts. Aerojet Rocketdyne remains embroiled in a board proxy fight between CEO Eileen Drake and Executive Chairman Warren Lichtenstein, which began during the now terminated Lockheed Martin deal.

AST SpaceMobile: -5%

The satellite-to-smartphone broadband company saw minimal revenue of $2.4 million in the first quarter, with slightly increased operating expenses of $32.7 million from the previous quarter. AST continues to work toward the launch of its BlueWalker 3 demonstration satellite this summer, with about $83 million invested in constructing and testing the spacecraft so far. The company has $255 million in cash.

Astra: -66%

BlackSky: -46%

Seattle-based satellite imagery specialist BlackSky reported first quarter revenue of $13.9 million with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $9.5 million, up 91% and 53% from the same period a year prior, respectively. BlackSky has $138 million in cash. CEO Brian O’Toole emphasized the company sees increasing demand for Earth imagery from both the U.S. and foreign governments, with BlackSky stating it “believes capacity” from the current 14 satellites it has in orbit “will be more than sufficient to support increased customer demand.”

Iridium: -11%

The satellite communications provider delivered revenue of $168.2 million, an operational EBITDA profit of $103.2 million, and 1.8 million total subscribers in the first quarter – up 15%, 17%, and 15%, respectively, from a year prior. Iridium CEO Matt Desch noted the company’s supply chain team is managing issues and “we seem to be doing as well as anyone in getting the parts we need,” but said the “problem is that demand continues to exceed forecasts.” Iridium has “tremendous demand” from Ukraine, Desch said, with the company shipping thousands of devices to provide services such as mobile phones to Internet-of-Things connectivity.

Maxar: 1%

The satellite imagery and space infrastructure company reported $405 million in first quarter revenue, up slightly from a year prior, with an adjusted EBITDA profit of $84 million, a 25% increase. Maxar’s order backlog fell 14% from the fourth quarter to $1.6 billion. CEO Dan Jablonsky said during the company’s call that its long-awaited first WorldView Legion satellite launch is delaying to September due to an issue during testing. Jablonsky added that he is “disappointed that we’ve had another delay” with Maxar’s timeline for getting its WorldView Legion satellites in orbit. It has “been hit with supply chain and COVID-related issues over the past couple of years.”

Momentus: -31%

The spacecraft maker reported no revenue in the first quarter, and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $17.2 million – up from a loss of $13.2 million a year prior. Momentus spent the quarter preparing to launch its Vigoride spacecraft this month to demonstrate its capabilities, and signed agreements to fly on future SpaceX rideshare launches. The company has $136 million in cash on hand.

Mynaric: -33%

The laser communications maker announced preliminary results for 2021 in a shareholder letter, with the German company having listed on the Nasdaq late last year. Converted from euros, Mynaric in 2021 brought in $2.6 million in revenue, and has about $50 million in cash. Mynaric’s customer backlog for 2022 has seen it receive about $21 million from contracts for laser communications units.

Redwire: -40%

The space infrastructure conglomerate made $32.9 million in revenue for the first quarter, up slightly from a year prior, with a backlog of orders worth $273.9 million. Redwire has about $6 million in cash, with about $31 million in available liquidity through existing debt.

Rocket Lab: -62%

The small-rocket builder reported $40.7 million in first quarter revenue, up 147% from a year prior – and $34 million of that revenue came from Rocket Lab’s spacecraft business, with the remaining minority from launches. Rocket Lab had an adjusted EBITDA loss of $8 million, down 8% from a year ago, and has $603 million in cash. The company’s CFO Adam Spice said during the earnings call that its “supply chain is relatively intact” due to vertical integration, but buying production equipment for Rocket Lab’s coming Neutron vehicle is “suffering supply chain issues,” as “there’s no amount of money in the world that can accelerate some of that stuff.”

Satellogic: -51%

The satellite imagery company announced 2021 results earlier this month, having gone public in January. Satellogic has 22 satellites in orbit, with plans to launch a dozen more this year. The company had $4.2 million in 2021 revenue, with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $30.7 million.

Spire Global: -56%

Small satellite builder and data specialist Spire reported first quarter revenue of $18.1 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $9.7 million, up 86% and 62%, respectively, from a year ago. The company has $91.6 million in cash. Spire forecast full year 2022 revenue from annually recurring customer contracts between $101 million and $105 million. Spire CEO Peter Platzer said during the quarterly call that the company continues to aim to be “cash flow positive in 22 to 28 months,” with weather data helping customers ranging from the agriculture industry to a Formula 1 team, and its marine data helping support the cargo industry during the global supply chain challenges.

Telesat: -42%

Terran Orbital: -50%

The spacecraft manufacturer reported first quarter revenue of $13.1 million, up 25% from a year prior, with a $222 million backlog – in part thanks to a contract to build satellites for the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency. Terran Orbital saw an adjusted EBITDA loss of $14.7 million, quadruple its loss in first quarter 2021. It has $77 million in cash. Terran co-founder and CEO Marc Bell highlighted supply chain disruptions on the call, but emphasized that the company is increasingly vertically integrating its manufacturing.

ViaSat: -18%

The satellite broadband provider is on a different reporting cycle than the calendar year, with the company having reported fourth quarter results Wednesday. Viasat brought in $702 million of fourth quarter revenue, up 18% from the period a year ago, and an adjusted EBITDA of $134 million, down 9%. The company has nearly $1 billion in liquidity, largely through debt. In a letter to shareholders, Viasat noted the end of its fiscal year “had some challenges” due to regulatory delays, as well as increased R&D spending “on attractive growth opportunities.”

Virgin Galactic: -50%

The space tourism company reported negligible revenue for the first quarter, and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $77 million – 38% higher than the same period a year ago. The company has $1.22 billion in cash on hand. Although its current spacecraft and carrier aircraft refurbishment program is “progressing well” and expected to be finished in September, Virgin Galactic announced the delay of launching its commercial tourism service to the first quarter of 2023. Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said the delay in commercial service was due to “little issues” that pushed the company’s refurbishment schedule back. He added that, “like many companies around the world, we’re experiencing elevated levels of supply chain disruption.”

Virgin Orbit: -40%

The alternative rocket launcher reported first quarter revenue of $2.1 million, down 61% from the same period a year ago, and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $49.6 million, up 71%. Virgin Orbit noted the decrease in revenue was due to “launches contracted during early development phase with introductory pricing.” The company has $127 million in cash, with a total contract backlog of $575.6 million. CEO Dan Hart said during the company’s conference call that it still plans to launch between four and six times this year, with one complete so far.

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Tracy McGrady’s Ones Basketball League makes its New York debut Memorial Day weekend.
The Hall of Famer, who played for several NBA teams including the Magic and the Rockets, is spending under $10 million to back the league.
McGrady has been involved in other business ventures, but he told CNBC: “This is the first time I actually trusted and believed that I can pull this off.”

Tracy McGrady
Source: Ones Basketball League

This time, Tracy McGrady is trusting his ideas.
The basketball Hall of Famer has funded real estate projects, he’s backed a sports and entertainment agency, and committed to a cryptocurrency partnership before the sector lost billions in value. Now, McGrady is investing in his own company, Ones Basketball League, or OBL, which makes its New York premiere this weekend.

“I’ve always invested in other people’s ideas and other people’s vision,” McGrady told CNBC in an interview. “Not once did I ever trust mine. I didn’t have the confidence to think mine was good enough. I didn’t trust my ideas or decision-making when it came to my vision.”
He added: “This is the first time I actually trusted and believed that I can pull this off.”
McGrady, 43, self-funds OBL, an over-18 league through that tours seven cities from April to July. It pairs players in one-on-one games, a staple of playground basketball. Picture Ice Cube’s Big 3 league, but with fewer players and no former NBA stars.
McGrady will pay just under $10 million, all told, including the $250,000 prize for the eventual OBL champion. He has partnered with longtime sports executive and former XFL president Jeff Pollack to help with operations. Pollack says the costs associated with the league are “not significant” so far.
“That means we’re going to have an opportunity to grow this business and do it in a way where the economics, in the beginning, are pretty favorable,” Pollack said.

McGrady wants to attract a mass Generation Z audience, meaning those born after 1997. Then, he believes, media and sponsorship fees will follow.

Action during an OBL game
Source: Ones Basketball League

While OBL is new to the minor league sports scene, he pointed to other amateur leagues such as cornhole and bowling that draws a niche audience on networks and believe OBL can do the same. 
“No disrespect to what these other things ESPN is putting on their programming – this is more entertaining,” McGrady told CNBC earlier this week at the Standard Hotel in Manhattan. 
OBL has already found a prominent media supporter. It struck a digital distribution deal with Paramount-owned Showtime network that allows the network to show OBL content on its YouTube channel as well as cross-promotion.
Terms of this pact were undisclosed, but OBL confirmed it would split advertisement revenue.

McGrady gets the keys

Drafted in 1997 by the Toronto Raptors, McGrady played 16 seasons in the NBA, including a long stretch with the Houston Rockets, and made over $160 million in earnings, according to Spotrac, a website that tracks sports contracts. McGrady’s earnings include a $92 million deal with the Orlando Magic in 2000. His last NBA season was 2011-12.
He compared OBL to his stint with the Magic. It only lasted four seasons, but it was the start of seven-straight All-Star appearances and McGrady’s transition to “a household name” in the NBA.
“I finally get the keys handed to me and blossomed into this [All-Star] player,” said McGrady. “I didn’t see me being that type of guy. And I didn’t see [OBL] being this.”
OBL launched in February. The league plays regional games featuring 32 players throughout seven cities, including New York and Los Angeles. Players that win regional games earn $10,000. The top three players from the games can compete for the bigger $250,000 payout.

Orlando Magic guard Tracy McGrady (1) slam dunks the ball past Washington Wizards’ guard Rod Strickland during the second period of the game at the TD Waterhouse Centre in Orlando, 31, October 2000.
Tony Ranze | AFP | Getty Images

McGrady praised his two teenage sons for sparking his interest in one-on-one basketball. They don’t really watch live NBA or NCAA games, he said. “What they will watch: YouTube, short-form content, highlights,” McGrady added.
McGrady isn’t naïve about the start-up. He expects OBL will have hiccups, and profitability will be unlikely at first. McGrady and Pollack didn’t discuss specifics around OBL’s plan to make money, but they expect to eventually profit from licensing deals, sponsorships and ticketing, which would help create a return on investment for potential sponsors.
“It’ll come from the audience we ultimately reach and engage,” Pollack said. “We have a long way to go.”
He added that OBL would eventually seek investors, but at this stage, “we want to make sure that we understand clearly what this should be, and then we’ll plan how to grow it.”
OBL is joining a crowded sports media landscape. Competitors include the Drake- and Jeff Bezos-backed media company Overtime. This media firm operates Overtime Elite, or OTE – the league that pays high schoolers $100,000 with an established Gen Z following.
Macroeconomic concerns, including inflation, threaten early growth. Asked about these factors, Pollack suggested OBL is playing the long game.
“We’re in a tough economic time, and it may get worse,” Pollack said. “But we’re going to come out of it at some point, and what we’ve all seen in the last couple of years is the consumer appetite for sports content is as insatiable as it’s ever been.”
Should OBL attract its target audience to watch social media sports content, McGrady plans to grow the company globally.
“I have the right team to make it happen,” he said. “I think we’ve identified a model where it’s very entertaining.”

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A judge dismissed a federal lawsuit by former President Donald Trump that sought to bar a civil investigation of his business by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes came a day after a state appeals court in New York upheld subpoenas issued by James compelling Trump and two of his adult children to appear for questioning under oath as part of her probe.
Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, last year sued James in federal court in the Northern District of New York.
The claimed the attorney general violated their rights with her investigation into claims the company illegally manipulated the stated valuations of various real estate assets for financial gains.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against big tech companies at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 07, 2021 in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

A judge on Friday dismissed a federal lawsuit by former President Donald Trump that sought to bar a civil investigation of his business by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes came a day after a state appeals court in New York upheld subpoenas issued by James compelling Trump and two of his adult children to appear for questioning under oath as part of her probe.

James, in a Twitter post Friday, called the latest ruling in her favor “a big victory.”
“Frivolous lawsuits won’t stop us from completing our lawful, legitimate investigation,” James tweeted.
Trump and his company, the Trump Organization in December sued James in federal court in the Northern District of New York.
The suit claimed the attorney general violated their rights with her investigation into claims the company illegally manipulated the stated valuations of various real estate assets for financial gains.

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Trump and his company claimed that James’ “derogatory” comments about him when she ran for office and after her election showed she was retaliating against Trump with her probe, which was commenced “in bad faith and without a legally sufficient basis.”

Sannes, in her 43-page ruling Friday, dismissed those arguments, writing “Plaintiffs have not established that Defendant commenced the New York proceeding to otherwise harass them.”
Sannes noted that James has said that her investigation was opened as a result of the testimony before Congress by Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen in 2019.

“Mr. Cohen testified that Mr. Trump’s financial statements from the years 2011–2013 variously inflated or deflated the value of his assets to suit his interests,” Sannes wrote.
The judge also noted that under federal case law embodied in a 1971 ruling in a case known as Younger v. Harris says that “federal courts should generally refrain from enjoining or otherwise interfering in ongoing state proceedings.”
Sannes said Trump had failed to offer facts that would warrant an exception to that case law being applied in his lawsuit.
“Plaintiffs could have raised the claims and requested the relief they seek in the federal action” in state court in Manhattan, Sannes wrote.
The parties already have litigated numerous issues related to James’ investigation in Manhattan Supreme Court.
James, in a prepared statement, said, “Time and time again, the courts have made clear that Donald J. Trump’s baseless legal challenges cannot stop our lawful investigation into his and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings.”
“”No one in this country can pick and choose how the law applies to them, and Donald Trump is no exception. As we have said all along, we will continue this investigation undeterred,” James said.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, in an emailed statement said, “There is no question that we will be appealing this decision.”
“If Ms. James’s egregious conduct and harassing investigation does not meet the bad faith exception to the Younger abstention doctrine, then I cannot imagine a scenario that would,” Habba wrote, referring to the element of Sannes’ decision related to the case law from Younger v. Harris.

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