Amelio's SPAC Upside the Head

SPAC that went splat

How ex-Apple CEO Gil Amelio raised $173 million - and lost almost all of it.

By Adam Lashinsky
senior writer

(Fortune Magazine) -- Normally investors make decisions based on close evaluation of the fundamentals underlying a company. In a SPAC, or special-purpose acquisition corporation, popular Wall Street vehicles whose organizers raise money to spend on yet-to-be-determined targets, investors buy solely into the pedigree of the founders.

Which is why they were so quick to pour $173 million into Acquicor, a SPAC formed in 2005 by a supergroup of Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) alumni - co-founder Steve Wozniak, former CEO Gil Amelio, and ex-senior executive Ellen Hancock. Instead, the trio turned that cash into a highly indebted company whose equity today is worth $15 million.

In early 2007, Acquicor bought a Southern California chip company called Jazz Semiconductor for $253 million (after returning $33 million to shareholders who wanted their money back instead). But the timing was terrible. Jazz sells to wireless companies like mobile-phone makers, who have been in a nasty downturn. Shares of Acquicor - renamed Jazz Technologies (JAZ) - have cratered from their IPO price of $6 to a recent 71 cents per share. On Feb. 13 the company retained UBS to explore "strategic alternatives."

Read more >>> CNN

Nasdaq-Amex SPAC-down!

Nasdaq wants piece of Amex's lucrative SPAC market

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

At this time last year, the Nasdaq was the happening place for a new company to come out. The exchange greeted 22 initial public offerings in January and February 2007, while the NYSE and Amex both saw new entrants in the single digits.

This year, the picture looks totally different. Only five IPOs have appeared on the Nasdaq, compared to four on the NYSE and 10 on Amex. The reason for the Amex's dominance is simple: special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs.

SPACs are shell companies that come public to raise money in order to buy another company. They started popping up on bulletin boards in 2003, and the Amex started taking them in 2005. Now, they've turned into big business. Last year, they consumed 25% of the IPO market, according to Renaissance Capital.

Read more >>> Tehran Times

See also >>> NYSE Amendment to Allow for SPAC IPOs (NYX, NDAQ)

Hedge Fund SPACmail?

IPO VIEW-For blank-check IPOs, popularity comes at a price
02.22.08, 8:06 PM ET By Jonathan Keehner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blank-check companies have been some of the hottest initial public offerings in recent months, but hedge funds with an eye for profit may be short-circuiting them, a trend that could end up stunting the IPO market.

Blank-check companies, or special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), which use proceeds from share sales to fund future acquisitions, can work well. Retailer American Apparel Inc was acquired last year by one.

SPACs raised nearly four times more in 2007 than in the year before, bolstered by a credit crunch that sidelined competitors like private equity firms that rely on debt to make acquisitions.

But SPACs, which sold more than $12 billion of shares last year, have run afoul of investors like hedge funds -- who can demand that the companies return cash if they don't like a potential acquisition."

Some of the difficulty for SPACs in completing acquisitions is the entrance of what might be described as activist investors," said Brett Goetschius, publisher of DealFlow Media, which collects data and has a newsletter on SPACs. "Investors can essentially 'greenmail' the SPAC management to buy out their shares in order to get acquisition approval."

Read more >>> Reuters via Forbes

MAC SPAC's Vague PR

Huh?

NEW YORK, NY – February 20, 2008 – Marathon Acquisition Corp. (AMEX: MAQ.U) (the “Company”) announced today that it has met the condition under its Certificate of Incorporation that permits it until August 30, 2008 to complete an appropriate acquisition meeting the criteria set forth therein. The Company will make an additional announcement once it has entered into a definitive agreement to complete a business combination.

View PR at SEC.gov

Read More >>> NY Times DealBook and Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald

Nasdaq Floats SPAC Listing Plan

Nasdaq plans blank-check company listing standards

NEW YORK, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Nasdaq Stock Market Inc (NDAQ.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it will propose standards for listing "blank-check" companies, an increasingly popular type of entity formed solely to acquire other businesses.

Blank-check companies, also known as special-purpose acquisition vehicles, raised more than $12 billion last year in initial public offerings, more than four times the record $2.6 billion in 2006, according to research firm Dealogic.

Nasdaq said it plans to ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a rule change to allow it to list blank-check companies. It said it plans to require such companies to meet more stringent standards than typical companies before winning Nasdaq listings. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Phil Berlowitz).

Read more >>> WSJ and Forbes and BloggingStocks

Hedgie SPAC: From Shell to Big Board

A Public Hedge Fund With Good News to Report
February 6, 2008, 2:27 pm

So far, the public markets have been kind to GLG Partners, a British hedge fund.

GLG made its first-ever earnings announcement as a public company, reporting a profit, excluding compensation costs related to its public offering last year, of $127.1 million. That’s a 72.3 percent rise over the same period a year earlier. Including the costs, GLG lost $315 million for the three months ended Dec. 31.

The news drove GLG’s shares up more than 10 percent in trading Wednesday morning, though they have since drifted down to about $12.47, or a 2.5 percent gain over Tuesday’s closing price.

Read more >>> NYT DealBook

See related >>> SEC Admin. Proceedings: In the Matter of GLG PARTNERS, LP

Biggest Ever EuroSPAC is Next...

Financiers to list cash shell on Euronext

By Kate Burgess in London
January 31 2008 02:15

Shares in a new cash shell are to be listed on Euronext early next month with the aim of buying into a European company worth between €3bn ($4.45bn) and €5bn within two years.

Nicolas Berggruen and Martin Franklin, who completed the biggest takeover by a “blank cheque” acquisition company in the US last year, are seeking to raise €700m for a new European “blank cheque” company called Liberty International.

It will be the biggest “special purpose acquisition company”, or Spac, to be launched in Europe and marks a new phase in the spread of these publicly-listed shells which are designed to raise cash from investors and then identify a business to buy.

Read more >>> Financial Times article

Feb. 10, 2008 Update >>> Berggruen Holdings and Marlin Equities List €600 Million Liberty International on Euronext