Liberty Media Acquisition Corp. (LMACA) Shareholders Approve Early Liquidation Date

Liberty Media Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LMACA) announced this afternoon that its shareholders have approved a proposal to allow LMAC to amend its deadline date so it can liquidate early.

The SPAC previously filed a proxy in September to unwind and redeem all of its outstanding public shares prior to December 30, 2022. Liberty Media’s original completion deadline was January 26, 2023, but will now be amended to December 1, 2022. Today’s vote result means the SPAC and sponsor team will be able to wind up and liquidate the trust before the new excise tax on shareholder buybacks goes into effect as of the start of the new year.

As has been cited by many teams this year, Liberty Media noted in its September press release, “…a declining IPO market in 2022, and significant public and private market volatility, have prevented the Company from securing an opportunity that it believes will offer a compelling return on investment for its stockholders.”  Liberty Media also stated that they had evaluated over 140 target companies since its IPO on January 23, 2021.

Holders of 44,520,391 public shares of Series A common stock of LMAC, representing 77.427% of the trust account, exercised their right to redeem their shares for cash at a redemption price of approximately $10.07 per share, for an aggregate redemption amount of approximately $448,286,713. Following these redemptions, 12,979,609 public shares of Series A Common Stock remain outstanding. Interestingly, the number of shares redeemed was lower than the current 2022 redemption median of 91.3% (average of of 80.1%) despite the certainty of pending liquidation.

Liberty Media originally announced its $500 million IPO in January 2021. The SPAC originally intended to combine with a digital media or entertainment business with an inefficient capital structure that could be improved to generate free cash flow. Liberty Media is led by President and CEO Gregory B. Maffei alongside Chief Corporate Development Officer Albert E. Rosenthaler, Chief Accounting Officer and Principal Financial Officer Brian J. Wendling and Chief Legal Officer and Chief Administrative Officer Renee L. Wilm.