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Silver Spike Acquisition Corporation *

Silver Spike Acquisition Corporation *

Oct 19, 2020 by Roman Developer

PROPOSED BUSINESS COMBINATION: WM Holding Company, LLC

ENTERPRISE VALUE: $1.38 billion
ANTICIPATED SYMBOL: MAPS

WM Holding Company, LLC (“WMH” or the “Company”) and Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SSPK) (“Silver Spike”), announced December 10, 2020 a definitive agreement for a business combination that would result in WMH becoming a public company. The combined company will be led by Chris Beals, Chief Executive Officer of WMH, and is expected to remain listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. <br><br>

Founded in 2008, WMH operates Weedmaps, the leading online listings marketplace for cannabis consumers and businesses, and WM Business, the most comprehensive SaaS subscription offering sold to cannabis retailers and brands. The Company solely provides software and other technology solutions and is non-plant touching. WMH has grown revenue at a CAGR of 40% over the last five years and is on track to deliver $160 million in revenue and $35 million in EBITDA for 2020.<br><br>

The Company’s cloud-based SaaS solutions provide an end-to-end operating system for cannabis retailers. These tools support compliance with the complex, disparate and constantly evolving regulations applicable to the cannabis industry. Underlying this compliance functionality is a proprietary and sophisticated rules engine that is a core underpinning of the WM Business SaaS platform. Through its website and mobile apps, WM Holding provides consumers with the latest information, data and availability of cannabis products, facilitating product discovery and driving sales for our customers.


TRANSACTION

The estimated post transaction equity value of the combined Company is approximately $1.5 billion, assuming the $10.00 per share PIPE price and no redemptions by Silver Spike shareholders. The transaction will provide up to $575 million of gross proceeds (assuming no redemptions), including $325 million through a fully-committed common stock PIPE at $10.00 per share. The PIPE includes commitments from existing investors including Silver Spike Capital, and new institutional investors including funds managed by AFV Partners, the Federated Hermes Kaufmann Funds and Senvest Management LLC. <br><br>

WM Holding’s executive officers will retain 100% of their equity in the combined company, which will have approximately $100 million of cash on hand after closing.


PIPE

  • $325,000,000 of Silver Spike’s Class A ordinary shares (or shares of Class A common stock of Surviving Pubco into which such shares will convert in connection with the Domestication) at a purchase price of $10.00 per share.

SPONSOR LETTER AGREEMENT

  • The Sponsor agreed that, in the event that the sum of (i) the amount of cash available to be released from the trust account of Silver Spike (after giving effect to all payments made as a result of the completion of all Silver Spike share redemptions) and (ii) the net amount of cash proceeds actually received by Silver Spike is less than $350,000,000, then 15% of the Sponsor Shares will be deemed to be “Deferred Sponsor Shares,” and a corresponding number of Surviving Company Membership Units (as defined in the Merger Agreement) held by Surviving Pubco will be deemed to be “Deferred Company Units.”

NOTABLE CONDITIONS TO CLOSING

  • WMH’s obligations to complete the Business Combination are contingent upon Available Cash being greater than or equal to $300,000,000 (the “Minimum Cash Condition”)

NOTABLE CONDITIONS TO TERMINATION

  • Either party may terminate the agreement if the Closing has not occurred on or before June 10, 2021 (which date may be extended to July 10, 2021 in certain circumstances in accordance with the Merger Agreement)

ADVISORS

  • Rothschild & Co. is serving as exclusive financial and capital markets adviser to WM Holding
  • Cooley LLP is serving as legal advisor to WM Holding
  • Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated and Piper Sandler & Co. are serving as joint placement agents and financial advisors to Silver Spike Acquisition Corp
  • Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is serving as legal advisor to Silver Spike Acquisition Corp

SILVER SPIKE ACQUISTION CORPORATION MANAGEMENT & BOARD


Executive Officers

Scott Gordon, 57
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Since 2016, Mr. Gordon has been the co-founder and Chairman of Egg Rock Holdings, parent company of the Papa & Barkley family of cannabis products with related subsidiary assets in manufacturing, processing, and logistics. Egg Rock Holdings also is the parent company of Papa & Barkley Essentials, a hemp-derived CBD business based in Colorado. From 2016 to 2018, Mr. Gordon was also President of Fintech Advisory Inc., investment manager for a multibillion dollar family office fund focused on long-term and opportunistic investments in emerging markets. From late 2013 to 2016, Mr. Gordon served as a Portfolio Manager at Taconic Capital Advisors, a multi-strategy investment firm. Prior to joining Taconic, Mr. Gordon was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Caxton Associates from 2009 to 2012. He was also a Senior Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets at Marathon Asset Management from 2007 to 2009. Earlier in his career, Mr. Gordon held leadership positions at Bank of America and ING Capital. Mr. Gordon was a founding member of the Emerging Markets business at JP Morgan where he worked upon graduating from Bowdoin College in 1983.


William Healy, 56
President and Director

Since 1986, Mr. Healy has advised and covered institutional clients in a variety of roles spanning corporate finance, investment management, and investment banking in London, Brazil, and New York. From 2018 to May 2019, he was President of Pantera Capital Management, an investment management company. From 1998 to 2016, Mr. Healy managed several hedge fund and private equity dedicated institutional sales teams at Deutsche Bank and the firm’s wealth and asset management division. He began his career with The Chase Manhattan Bank based in London, Brazil, and New York where he advised multinational corporations on cross-border funding of their Latin America-domiciled operations. From 1993 to 1998, he formed and managed the ING Barings emerging markets institutional debt sales team where he covered clients and often traveled to Latin America, Europe, and Asia to structure, price, and pre-market many of the firm’s capital markets transactions. Mr. Healy received a BA, International Business from The George Washington University, Washington DC. He is multi-lingual (English, Spanish, and Portuguese) and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) member.


Greg Gentile, 42
Chief Financial Officer

From 2010 to 2018, Mr. Gentile was Chief Executive Officer of GMG Investment Advisors, LLC, an investment management company. From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Gentile served as Managing Director of Barclays Capital, an investment bank. Prior to joining Barclays Capital, Mr. Gentile was a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, where he was employed from 1997 until 2008. Mr. Gentile received a bachelor’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1997.


Mohammed Grimeh, 52 [RESIGNED]
Chief Operating Officer

From 2016 to 2018, Mr. Grimeh was deputy Global Head Fixed Income at Millennium Management, a global Alternative Asset Manager based in New York. From 2009 to 2016, Mr. Grimeh was Managing Director and head of Global Markets for Standard Chartered Bank, Americas. From 1998 to 2008, Mr. Grimeh was at Lehman Brothers where he held various roles including managing director and global head Emerging Markets. Prior to that, he was aa Managing Director at ING Barings from 1993 to 1998. He started his career at Societe Generale, a French Bank in 1990 and moved in 1992 to London to join Westpac banking Corporation. Mr. Grimeh graduated from Ecole Centrale in Paris in 1990.


 

Board of Directors

Orrin Devinsky, 62
Director

Since 1989, Dr. Devinsky has directed the NYU Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and is a Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery at the NYU School of Medicine. From 2013 to 2018, Dr. Devinsky served as a lead investigator for the GW Pharma trials of EPIDIOLEX in childhood-onset severe epilepsies; since 2016, Dr. Devinsky has served as the Chair of the Medical Advisory Board for Tilray, a pharmaceutical and cannabis company, and on the Scientific Advisory Board for Papa & Barkley, a cannabis products company with related subsidiary assets in manufacturing, processing and logistics; since 2017, Dr. Devinsky has served on the Business and Scientific Advisory Boards of Tevard, a company developing gene therapy platforms to target rare diseases with high unmet need, and on the Business and Scientific Advisory Boards of Engage Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing a new rescue therapy for people who experience uncontrolled epileptic seizures; since 2018, Dr. Devinsky has served as the Chief Medical Officer for Receptor Life Sciences, a cannabinoid medicine drug development company. Dr. Devinsky received an MS from Yale University in 1977, a BS from Yale College in 1978 and a MD from Harvard Medical School in 1982.


Richard M. Goldman, 58
Director

Since 2012, Mr. Goldman has been the Managing Member of Becket Capital, LLC, an advisory services firm for investment management companies; from 2011 to 2012, Mr. Goldman served as Chief Operating Officer of Guggenheim Investments, the global asset management and investment advisory division of Guggenheim Partners; prior to joining Guggenheim Investments, from 2007 to 2012, Mr. Goldman was the Chief Executive Officer of Rydex Investments, the investment advisor to Rydex Funds. Since 2016, Mr. Goldman has served as Independent Director for the O’Shares Investments ETF Trust; since 2017, Mr. Goldman has served as the Independent Chairman of the Board of the Harvest Volatility Edge Trust, the entity responsible for the Harvest Edge mutual funds, and on the Board of Directors of Trinitas Capital Management, a credit-focused investment management firm; since 2018, Mr. Goldman has served as Lead Independent Director for the Axonic Alternative Income Interval Fund. Mr. Goldman received a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College in 1983.


Kenneth H. Landis, 68
Director

Since 2000, Mr. Landis has been the CEO of Landis Capital, LLC, a provider of capital for seed, early stage and later stage venture investments in consumer products, ecommerce and enterprise companies. Previously, he served as Cofounder and a member of the Board of Directors of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, CEO of Benetton Cosmetics Corp, Senior Vice President of Alfin, Inc., a manufacturer and distributer of cosmetics products, and Treasurer of IMS Health, Inc., a provider of information, services and technology for the healthcare industry. Mr. Landis began his career at Arthur Andersen and Co. and was formerly a Certified Public Accountant. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of several early stage private companies and as a Trustee of Suffield Academy. Mr. Landis obtained a BS in Economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and an MBA from New York University in 1973.