RedBall Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:RBAC) announced this morning that it has mutually terminated its combination agreement with ticket marketplace SeatGeek.
Similar to a handful of other SPACs we’ve seen, RedBall cited unfavorable market conditions as the key reason behind the termination. But, the press release further specified that growth technology companies in particular have been facing difficulties in the public markets.
SeatGeek will continue to remain a private company, and RedBall will convene and adjourn the special meeting of its shareholders scheduled to be held today, June 1, 2022. Today’s press release did not disclose RedBall’s plan to seek out an alternative business combination, but it has a transaction deadline quickly approaching on August 17, 2022.
The current market pain is still impacting SPACs and IPOs alike, making RedBall’s deal the 22nd to terminate this year and the second this morning following Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited’s (NYSE:OPA) termination of Forbes. The SPAC originally priced a $500 million IPO in August 2020. The RedBall team is headlined by Billy Beane – the former Oakland A’s general manager and executive who pioneered “Moneyball” techniques of leveraging performance analytics to generate the best ROI on player acquisitions.
RedBall initially announced its $1.35 billion combination with SeatGeek in October 2021. New York City-based SeatGeek provides an event ticket marketplace to enterprise clients, individual sellers and consumers that includes in-stadium purchase options and integrations with ride-hailing services.
One of the eternal questions surrounding SPACs has been their ability or inability to match the opportunity and the performance of the traditional IPO route, and it has become received wisdom on Wall Street that SPACs don’t match up. This is ostensibly born out in in the aggregate statistics that are frequently cited. But, downside...
At the SPAC of Dawn Despite the specter of recession looming, many of the hot technology sectors that SPACs favored during the boom times appear to be coming back on the menu. Ares II (NYSE:AACT) is reportedly angling to lock down a deal with an autonomous trucking firm. Northern Genesis II and Reinvent Y each...
Cantor Equity Partners II (NASDAQ:CEPT) filed another warrantless SPAC showing that the firm will not be slowing down despite Cantor CEO Howard Lutnick moving his attentions to the administration. The new $200 million SPAC would join Cantor Equity Partners I (NASDAQ:CEPO), which became the first SPAC to IPO this year and Cantor Equity Partners (NASDAQ:CEP),...
At the SPAC of Dawn US market futures continue to be flash dark red after a major down day saw SPAC-favorite exchange Nasdaq lose about -4% of its value leaving it running down -9.5% on the year. The sudden downturn has been somewhat personal for the administration as Trump Media (NASDAQ:DJT) itself fell about -11.5%...
Titan Acquisition Corp has filed for a $240 million SPAC IPO, aiming to focus on opportunities in the finance and tech-enabled services industry. The blank-check company intends to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “TACHU”, offering 24,000,000 units at $10.00 each, with the trust funded at 100.5%. The unit structure includes one-half of one...