The Latest SPAC News and Rumors: January 20, 2023
Below is a daily summary of links to the latest SPAC news and rumors gathered across the web.
Latest SPAC News: BigBear.ai secures $900M contract with US Air Force, Starry slashes another 100 jobs, and Eagle Football Holdings plans $1.2B SPAC listing
Columbia’s BigBear.ai takes flight with $900M, decade-long US Air Force contract
Barely 90 days into her tenure as BigBear.ai’s (NYSE:BBAI) CEO, Mandy Long can already boast a handful of significant victories. Perhaps chief among them is the $900 million, 10-year contract the cybersecurity company recently announced it had secured with the United States Air Force.
The former IBM executive, who is based in the Chicago metropolitan area, added that this IDIQ contract’s size and structure reflect the company that BigBear.ai became after going public via a special purpose acquisition company process in 2021.
READStarry to slash another 100 jobs
Beleaguered fixed wireless access (FWA) firm Starry Internet (OTCMKTS: STRY) will cut another 100 jobs from its payroll. In an SEC filing, the company said that the layoffs will result in a 24% reduction in its workforce and be effective on January 23.
Starry will incur about $800,000 in one-time cash shares from the layoffs but it expects the job cuts will result in $12 million in savings over the next 12 months.
Last March Starry became a publicly traded company on the NYSE after completing a merger with special purpose acquisition company FirstMark Horizon Acquisition. The deal was valued at $1.66 billion.
New Lyon owner Eagle Football Holdings plans $1.2B SPAC listing
Eagle Football Holdings, the multi-club group controlled by US businessman John Textor, is reportedly planning to go public via a SPAC in what would be a first for the soccer industry.
According to the Financial Times (FT), Eagle Football is targeting a US$1.2 billion valuation and wants to go public this year. Timing will be determined by market conditions.
SPAC Deals Shrink After Speculation Wanes
Some of Wall Street’s most speculative investors are scaling back their ambitions, doing deals that are a 10th the size of their flashy, top-of-market acquisitions.
Creators of SPACs are valuing companies they seek to take public at the lowest levels since the boom began nearly three years ago, figures from Dealogic show. The average announced SPAC merger value has fallen to about $200 million so far in January, down from more than $2 billion for much of 2021 during the sector’s peak.
Northern District of California Holds That SPAC Investors Have Standing to Sue Regarding Alleged Misstatements About A Different Entity, But Dismiss Putative Class Action For Failure To Allege Material Misstatements
On January 11, 2023, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a putative class action asserting claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5(b) against an electric vehicle company and its CEO.
In re CCIV/Lucid Motors Sec. Litig., No. 4:21-cv-9323, slip op. (N.D. Cal. Jan. 11, 2023), ECF No. 151. Plaintiffs, who allegedly purchased shares in a SPAC that later merged with the electric vehicle company (with the electric vehicle company becoming the surviving entity of the merger), alleged that, prior to the merger, the company had made misrepresentations and omissions about its value.
READFidelity Fund Bought Shares in a Crypto SPAC
The Fidelity Concord Street Trust, which kind of invests in everything with $11 billion in assets under management, has invested in a number of crypto related entities, though not in bitcoin or eth directly.
The fund has $4.6 million worth of Coinbase, $1 million worth of MicroStrategy, half a million worth of both the Riot and the Marathon bitcoin miner, and a number of SPACs.
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