Number Crunch

The Beginning of the End of the SPAC Frenzy

Blank-check companies are running out of viable companies to acquire

370: That’s how many “blank-check companies,” otherwise known as special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), are actively looking for a target company to merge with and take public, according to CNBC.

SPACs are companies that raise funds on public markets for the explicit purpose of merging with a private company and taking them public, thereby allowing the target company to bypass the lengthy and expensive process of a traditional IPO. Last year saw a boom in the number of companies that went public via SPAC, with sports betting platform DraftKings and battery company QuantumScape among them.

Why a SPAC Bubble Is Actually Good for the Economy

And the SPACs just keep on coming, with everyone from Shaquille O’Neal to former Cosmopolitan editor Joanna Coles launching a new SPAC. Since the beginning of this year, 200 new SPACs have raised $70 billion and now appear so desperate for target companies to take public that they’ve begun to merge with…