Below is a daily summary of links to the latest SPAC news and rumors gathered across the web.
Latest SPAC News: Thiel-backed crypto exchange eyes SPAC merger with Far Peak, Bowlero in talks to merge with Isos while Sternlicht and SEC Chair Gensler call for more oversight and transparency on SPACs
Thiel-Backed Crypto Exchange Bullish is in SPAC Merger Talks
Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish, backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, is in talks to merge with SPAC Far Peak Acquisition Corp.
The blank-check company is discussing a deal that could value Bullish at as much as $12 billion, but the final valuation could change depending on the price of Bitcoin.
An agreement could be reached as soon as the next few weeks. The SPAC has already received interest from investors about taking part in a PIPE transaction, which could extend into the hundreds of millions of dollars, to help fund a deal.
READBowlero in Merger Talks With SPAC Led by Ex-WWE Executives
Bowling center operator Bowlero Corp. is in talks to go public through a merger with blank-check firm Isos Acquisition Corp., people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.
Isos is in discussions to raise new equity to support a transaction that’s set to value the combined entity at about $2.6 billion. Shares surged as much as 4.2% after Bloomberg News reported the talks.
READSternlicht Sees Clover As Sign SPACs Need Reining In
Property billionaire Barry Sternlicht said SPACs are in need of further oversight from the SEC, and pointed at Clover Health Investments Corp. as a sign of a bubble.
“The stock market is detached from reality,” he said in a virtual panel discussion on Wednesday at Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum. “Clover Health Care is basically a fraud, is trading at $16 a share, and it keeps going up. The more you say it is going out of business, the higher the stock goes.”
Sternlicht, despite recently pricing two new IPOs of his own in the past two weeks to add to his three other JAWs SPACs, and a sixth SPAC currently getting ready to IPO, said that he hoped the trend had peaked.
READSEC Chair Gensler Says SPACs Need More Transparency
Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler talks about ways to boost transparency around SPACs.
The SEC chief said he wants to make sure that mom-and-pop investors don’t lose out to larger, more sophisticated players especially when they are putting their money in SPACs.
READSPACs and Traditional IPOs: An Offshore Perspective
As more SPACs list outside the US, an increasing number of de-SPAC transactions and greater interest from Asia-based sponsors, it is expected the use of Cayman, BVI and other offshore companies will continue to increase in relation to Asia-connected SPAC deals.
It remains to be seen which Asian exchange will become the region’s go-to for SPACs and whether Asia will be the next to see the SPAC boom. What is certain is that Cayman and BVI will continue to remain central to global capital and M&A markets as more Asia based SPACs are launched and large numbers of existing cashed-up SPACs race to identify merger targets, according to Lexology.
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At the SPAC of Dawn Happy Friday! SPACInsider has unveiled new presets on SPAC Performance accessible via the Data drop-down to easily sort for the highest and lowest performing active SPACs and de-SPACs. On the de-SPAC side, Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) continues to be well ahead of the pack, logging a 710% return by share price adjusted...
AGBA (NASDAQ:AGBA) stock is up over +90% this morning following a +211% premarket spike on news it has signed a definitive agreement to combine with social streaming video platform Triller. AGBA, the company itself, was formed by the $555 million combination between a SPAC of the same name and TAG Companies, a financial services firm...
At the SPAC of Dawn Since closing its combination with DHC last month, AI customer engagement firm BEN (NASDAQ:BNAI) has rolled out new partnerships with call center and healthcare clients. And, while it faces a fair bit of competition in the chatbot realm, several high-profile institutions have demonstrated that creating one that provides useful services...
Blue Ocean (NASDAQ:BOCN) provided significantly more texture today in the presentation for its $275 million combination with Asian digital media group TNL Mediagene, which it expects to hit profitability in the second half of the year despite a slight shakeup in financing for the transaction. The first big update in the first investor deck is...
At the SPAC of Dawn A brand new market may have just opened up for space de-SPACs as NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced a shift in the agency’s $11 billion program for a mission to return samples from Mars. Rather than rely on the agency’s internal technologies that would be predicted to get a sample...