Billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, on Monday announced two new orders to launch communications satellites on its rockets.
The Hawthorne company’s two-stage Falcon 9 rocket will launch a satellite for a new customer, Hispasat Group, a Madrid-based satellite communications operator that distributes television, broadband services and other content in Spanish and Portuguese. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will also launch a communications satellite for Saudi Arabian communications satellite operator Arabsat.
The aerospace manufacturer said it expects to launch the two missions from Florida’s Cape in late 2017 and 2018. Terms of the contracts were not disclosed.
SpaceX announced the deals during World Satellite Business Week, an annual event that kicked off Monday in Paris.
Patrick Soon-Shiong Licenses Amgen Drug
NantPharma LLC, a company controlled by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, has signed a licensing agreement with Amgen Inc. for AMG 337, an experimental cancer drug, the company announced Monday.
Under the agreement, Amgen, the Thousand Oaks biotech, gave NantPharma the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize AMG 337 worldwide, excluding Japan, Russia and certain other Asian countries. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Earlier this year, NantPharma’s parent company NantWorks and Amgen entered an exclusive license agreement for the immunotherapeutic drug ganitumab.
Soon-Shiong made his fortune by developing cancer drug Abraxane. In May, Los Angeles Business Journal estimated his net worth at $15.3 billion.
Shares of Amgen closed down $2.21 or 1.4 percent to $151 on the Nasdaq.
Siemer Teams Up Down Under
Santa Monica’s Siemer & Associates, a boutique merchant bank that caters to the tech world, is setting up shop on that industry’s next frontier.
Siemer has formed a joint venture with Right Click Capital, a Sydney investment firm founded by tech entrepreneurs Ari Klinger and Benjamin Chong. The new company, called Siemer/Right Click Capital, will provide business advisory services for tech and digital media companies in the Asia-Pacific region.
According to a statement issued by Siemer, the new venture will help tech companies on the other side of the Pacific Rim raise capital and find M&A opportunities. Siemer and Right Click have invested in more than 180 tech companies between the two entities.
“Ari and Benjamin’s extensive experience in the development and sale of tech companies focused in Australia and Asia Pacific makes RCC the perfect partner to expand our global investment banking practice,” Siemer Managing Director David Siemer said in the statement. “With the global marketplace constantly expanding, we look forward to working with the RCC team to facilitate more cross-border transactions as well as offer assistance to more international companies seeking expert financial advice.”
