Former baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez files to form $575 million SPAC as IPO craze continues
- The former baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez is joining the SPAC craze and launching one of his own.
- Rodriguez is set to lead Slam Corp., which is seeking to raise $575 million in its public debut.
- Slam will seek to acquire a firm in sectors including sports, media, and wellness, a filing said.
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The former baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez is the latest high-profile name to throw his hat in the SPAC ring by launching a "blank check" company called Slam Corp., a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
SPACs - special-purpose acquisition companies - are investment vehicles that raise funds from investors that are then used to acquire a private company and take it public.
The filing said that Rodriguez would lead Slam as its CEO and that it would seek an acquisition within the "sports, media, entertainment, health and wellness and consumer technology sectors."
"We will seek to acquire a multibillion-dollar asset with a leading market position in an attractive industry," the filing said.
Unlike Billy Beane's Redball Acquisition Corp., Slam is not seeking to acquire a professional sports team, the filing said. Redball recently failed in an attempt to take the parent company of the Boston Red Sox public.
According to the filing, Slam is seeking to raise up to $575 million with the sale of stock and warrants at $10 per share.
SPACs have been all the rage since last year as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the traditional IPO roadshow. According to data from SPAC Insider, 248 blank-check companies raised $83 billion in 2020, while 118 SPACs had raised $35 billion so far in 2021.
Even former Trump administration officials are launching one: Wilbur Ross, the former commerce secretary, is heading a new SPAC with Larry Kudlow as a director.
Slam will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SLAM once the deal is completed, the filing said.