Shares of Better.com were hammered into the ground Thursday after the digital mortgage company completed its long-delayed SPAC merger and began to trade as a public company.
When Better first announced plans to go public more than two years ago at a $7.7 billion valuation, it was a different time. Mortgage interest rates were lower, the housing market had not slowed so dramatically, and the company was coming off a year in which it claimed to have notched $500 million in profits, TechCrunch reports.
But Better.com’s boom in business, fueled by existing homeowners refinancing their mortgages, turned into a bust and the company began laying off workers in November 2021. It would continue to let go of workers throughout 2022 as it began to bleed cash and suffer from a number of high-profile missteps and bad publicity.
Better.com’s SPAC deal was announced in May 2021. Aurora Acquisition shareholders approved the merger earlier this month after both companies traversed a rocky road to deal completion. Read more.
