Known as SPACs, these shell companies allow businesses to sell shares to the public with different disclosure than usual. What could go wrong? SPAC stands for special purpose acquisition company, the biggest thing in financial markets of the moment. Hundreds of these publicly traded shell companies are being created by everyone from KKR, the leveraged-buyout firm, to Alex Rodriguez, the baseball player turned entrepreneur. Just on Tuesday, the football player Colin Kaepernick filed for his own $250 million SPAC. These vehicles have only one purpose: to find a private company and buy it, usually within two years.Keep Reading

Here’s 2020 in a nutshell from the investment banker’s point of view: “Turmoil caused acceleration and unexpected change, and it was a breeding ground for opportunity,” says Conor McKenna, a VP at LUMA Partners. After stalling to near zero during the first three months of the pandemic, conversations and negotiations started to pick up again in the third quarter of 2020, bearing fruit in what became a busy back half for strategic M&A, according to LUMA’s 2020 Full Year Market Report. Click the button to review the article.Keep Reading