SPACs have been somewhat seen as an upgrade to the traditional IPO investment in recent times. The vehicle has been a specific target of entities in the media industry but there seems to still be caution around its viability, Forbes reports.
In 2021, WarnerMedia’s former Europe president, Iris Knobloch, left the company after 25 years of service to start a SPAC named I2PO. The $300 million investment vehicle was started through Euronext Paris and had backing from French billionaire François-Henri Pinault’s Artemis.
The SPACs first move was confirmed this year. To bring the French music streaming platform, Deezer, public at a $1.1 billion valuation. The goal is to capitalize on the growing music streaming market and to pursue several markets around the world through further investment and growth.
On the other side, however, Buzzfeed went public late last year through a SPAC merger but its earnings report and performance were sub-par juxtaposed to what was told to investors. Leading to pressure from said investors to make drastic changes within the organization, including cuts to the news team.
India media mogul, Shibasish Sarkar, the former Reliance Entertainment CEO also left the company to launch his own SPAC last year called International Media Acquisition Corp.
Focused on the entertainment sector in media, the company had a $230 million IPO on the Nasdaq in August. The SPAC aims to become a media conglomerate, owning areas in several pipelines within the media and entertainment space, commanding a good chunk of the industry in India. Read more.
