“I have never found any blank-check investment vehicle attractive. No matter what the reputation or what the sponsor might be. . . . They are the ultimate in terms of lack of transparency.”
— Arthur Levitt, former SEC Chairman
That’s a great quote…and it’s especially ironic given that Arthur Leavitt is currently Senior Advisor to the Carlyle Group, which is the Sponsor of Regalwood Global Energy. Oops.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen or heard negative quotes like that about SPACs. Mostly, they are from people who aren’t that well informed about the product. Or, as is the case with Arthur Leavitt, he’s referring to a time when Blank Check Companies actually were a terrible product. (To be fair, that quote from Arthur is very old.)
However, SPACs have since evolved. Bigger, better, more badass now.
So for fun, I found some old articles from back in the day that shows how the product (and the reporting) have changed over the years. Here’s hoping that one day in the near future, financial reporters will stop referencing SPACs from “the bad old days”. (Seriously, it’s a different product now. Please find a new angle.)
Note: It’s July 4th tomorrow and unless something crazy gets filed or there’s a major news announcement Thursday or Friday, we won’t be back until Monday.
Have a great Fourth of July, everyone!
SPAC Articles Through the Years
2005: Crave Huge Risk? This Investment May Be for You
2007: Wall Street’s New Status Symbol: The SPAC
2008: $300 Million to Burn, With a Catch
2016: More Wall Street banks, investors help write blank checks
2018: Why Are Top CEOs Flocking To SPACs (Blank Check Companies)?
Terms Tracker for the Week Ending April 11, 2025 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. It was another chaotic week for the broader markets, but the SPAC market held its ground—sort of. Despite the volatility, SPACs priced one IPO, announced...
At the SPAC of Dawn The past month’s rocky intersection of politics and economics continues to have up-and-down effects for de-SPACs. The latest to get a boost this week was Latin American real estate developer Murano Global Investments (NASDAQ:MRNO). The 2024 merger target of HCM saw a one-day gain of +9.2% propel its share price...
Pelican Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ:PELIU) has filed for a $75 million SPAC to find a technology target as its team builds on ties to a pair of other recent deals. This new SPAC is not over-funded and has one right to a 1/10 share in each unit, but it will only have 15 months to initially...
International Media Acquisition Corp. (OTC:IMAQ) has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with energy firm VCI Biofuels Group at an enterprise value of $1 billion. Vietnam-based VCI aims to develop a production hub for sustainable aviation fuel for the Asian market. The combined company is expected to trade on the Nasdaq once the deal...
At the SPAC of Dawn The Trump administration’s midday decision yesterday to do a sudden pause on most of its tariffs sent markets skyrocketing and allowed many de-SPACs to retrieve significant ground lost since the beginning of the year. The biggest gainer on the session was Israeli cybersecurity firm HUB Cyber Security (NASDAQ:HUBC), which also...