Companies That Went Public via SPACs Log Billions of Dollars in Goodwill Write-Downs

Companies that went public through mergers with SPACs in recent years booked billions of dollars in goodwill write-downs in 2022, reflecting in part a reckoning of the heady premiums paid to secure deals during the SPAC boom.

Some of the biggest goodwill impairments in 2022 came from SPAC-backed companies like cryptocurrency platform Bakkt Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKKT), business-services provider Advantage Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: ADV), 3-D printing firm Fathom Digital Manufacturing Corp.(NYSE: FATH), self-driving vehicle startup Aurora Innovation Inc. (NASDAQ: AUR) and now-bankrupt bitcoin miner Core Scientific Inc. (OTCMKTS: CORZQ), according to financial and risk advisory firm Kroll LLC. Each of these five companies’ pretax impairments exceeded $1 billion last year.