Rumors of Big Time Trouble for Social Capital Hedosophia
by Kristi Marvin on 2018-09-11 at 12:46pm

Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. (“IPOA”), which raised $690 million on September 13th, 2017, nearly one year ago today, might be in trouble.

According to Axios and the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the venture firm of Chamath Palihapitiya, who is IPOA’s Chairman and CEO, is “imploding“.   Failed venture firms are not totally shocking, but both articles pointedly place the blame squarely on Mr. Palihapitiya.

From the Silicon Valley Business Journal:

“Social Capital appears to be done, at least as a major venture capital investor,” Primack writes.

The firm’s leadership team is “hemorrhaging” its top talent, its limited partners are deeply unhappy with the ways things are being run, and its hedge fund is shutting down, Primack reports.

In addition, “Palihapitiya is regularly absent from the Social Capital offices, instead spending much of his time in Europe. He also is said by multiple sources to have repeatedly blown off investor meetings, sometimes sending regrets just minutes before they were to begin,” according to the report.

Current and former Social Capital employees say it could take days or weeks to get email replies from Palihapitiya.

In a tweet on Friday afternoon, Palihapitiya said the Axios story was “not accurate,” but did not elaborate further.

Social Capital Hedosohia still has one year of life left until they need to complete, but that detail is cold comfort to investors.  The share is currently trading at $9.87, but the warrant is trading down nearly 10% at $1.22.

Having said that, a lot can happen in twelve months.  And if you REALLY want to try and find a silver lining in all this, maybe if the venture firm shuts down it will force Mr. Palihapitiya to focus full-time on the SPAC.

Everybody loves a comeback.

 

 

Recent Posts
by Nicholas Alan Clayton on 2025-01-13 at 4:07pm

Live Oak Acquisition Corp. V (NASDAQ:LOKVU) has filed for a $200 million IPO that brings another serial SPAC team back to the mix for a generalist search but with a pair of technology deals already in their pocket. The new S-1 also puts Santander on the board for the 2025 SPAC market after it made...

by Nicholas Alan Clayton on 2025-01-13 at 1:40pm

CH4 Natural Solutions (NYSE:MTNE.U) has filed for a $250 million SPAC to bring both the Riverstone sponsor team and underwriter Citigroup back to the market for 2025. The team secured notably sponsor-friendly terms for the vehicle and will not overfund its trust. In fact, along with fellow Friday filer Live Oak V (NASDAQ:LOKVU), these two...

by Nicholas Alan Clayton on 2025-01-13 at 8:16am

At the SPAC of Dawn  Amid a restive market, SPACs have front-loaded their business this week with three of their four votes set for today and tomorrow. One of these is a completion vote, in which Bowen (NASDAQ:BOWN) will try and secure shareholder approval for its combination with Shenzhen Qianzhi BioTechnology just after having gained...

by Kristi Marvin on 2025-01-11 at 10:21am

Terms Tracker for the Week Ending January 10, 2025 Welcome to our weekly column where we discuss the findings from our IPO terms tracker based on the previous week’s pricings. This was the first full week in January and the first non-holiday week since December 23rd. All the same, 2025 has started with a bang...

by Nicholas Alan Clayton on 2025-01-10 at 3:45pm

Origin Investment Corp I has filed for a $60 million SPAC to hunt for an Asian target outside of China and marks ThinkEquity’s entry into the 2025 SPAC IPO market. ThinkEquity took all of 2024 off from directly underwriting SPACs as a left lead and has not brought one all the way to IPO since...

logo

Copyright © 2023 SPACInsider, Inc. All Rights Reserved