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Through the pandemic, in August 2021, Edgar Bronfman Jr launched a $200 million IPO for a SPAC trying to “purchase a high-caliber firm within the media, leisure and know-how house”.
That SPAC, Waverley Capital Acquisition Corp 1, quietly wound down in August, in response to paperwork shared with its buyers and reviewed by MBW.
Bronfman’s clean verify firm revealed in its S-1 registration assertion in early 2021 that it was trying to purchase a “Class-defining disruptive media firm”.
The assertion added: “We plan to focus on firms which can be positioned for brand new distribution and content material dynamics and open new alternatives and avenues for progress. We hope to leverage our administration staff’s intensive expertise as buyers and operators as nicely our breadth of business connections”.
The corporate’s management team contains co-founders, Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Daniel V. Leff, who, in response to the S-1, “collectively possess many years of expertise investing in, rising, and working category-defining media start-ups in addition to helping them transition to public possession”.
Between them, the duo’s earlier investments embrace: Roku, Inc,, fuboTV, Matterport, Pluto TV (acquired by Viacom), Wondery (acquired by Amazon), The Athletic, and Headspace.
Waverley’s staff additionally contains David Gandler (fuboTV co-founder and CEO), former-Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes, plus Chris Silbermann, the CEO of expertise company ICM Companions.
Bronfman Jr. was the Chairman and/or CEO of Warner Music Group between 2004 and 2012.
Bronfman and Leff are additionally Companions at a separate investment company referred to as Waverley Capital, which by way of its Waverley Capital II Fund has invested in firms reminiscent of Wondery and generative AI startup Endel.
On October 12 we realized that Waverley Capital, alongside Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures led a $3 million seed funding spherical in AI music company Hook. Three Six Zero and Avex additionally joined the spherical.
In an announcement issued by Bronfman’s SPAC, Waverley Capital Acquisition Corp 1, in August, the corporate stated that it was planning to redeem all of its shares efficient September 8, because it now not plans to hold out a enterprise mixture.
The final day that the Firm’s securities traded on the NYSE was August 24, 2023.
In accordance with the corporate’s registration assertion, if it was, “unable to finish an preliminary enterprise mixture inside 24 months of the closing of the Firm’s preliminary public providing, the corporate would:
(i) “stop all operations aside from the aim of winding up;
(ii) “as promptly as moderately doable however no more than ten (10) enterprise days thereafter (and topic to lawfully accessible funds therefor), redeem the general public shares, at a per-share worth, payable in money, equal to the combination quantity then on deposit within the belief fund, together with curiosity earned on the belief fund and never beforehand launched to the Firm to fund regulatory withdrawals and/or to pay earnings taxes, if any (much less as much as $100,000 of curiosity to pay dissolution bills), divided by the variety of public shares then in situation, which redemption will fully extinguish public members’ rights as members (together with the appropriate to obtain additional liquidation distributions, if any) topic to relevant regulation; and
(iii) “as promptly as moderately doable following such redemption, topic to the approval of the Firm’s remaining members and the administrators, liquidate and dissolve, topic within the case of sub-articles (ii) and (iii), to its obligations below Cayman Islands regulation to supply for claims of collectors and in all circumstances topic to the opposite necessities of relevant regulation.”
SPACs have been massive information in 2021 and 2022. In July 2021, Reservoir Media turned a public firm, itemizing on the Nasdaq within the US under the ticker RSVR after closing its business combination with Roth CH Acquisition II Co. (ROCC), a publicly traded particular objective acquisition firm (SPAC) fashioned by Roth Capital Companions and Craig-Hallum Capital Group.
In February 2021, Anghami listed on the New York Inventory Change by way of a merger with Vistas Media Acquisition Firm, a publicly-traded particular objective acquisition firm (SPAC).
In July 2022, Spotify rival Deezer made its official inventory market debut on the Euronext Paris after combining its business with a Particular Function Acquisition Firm referred to as I2PO.
Voice recognition firm SoundHound listed on the NASDAQ in 2022 following its merger with Archimedes Tech SPAC Companions Co., in a deal that originally valued the company at $2.1 billion.
US-based music distributor and wholesaler Alliance Leisure accomplished its merger with Adara Acquisition earlier this 12 months, at a valuation of $480 million. The brand new firm is now looking for to be listed on the NASDAQ.
Like Waverley Capital Acquisition Corp 1, nonetheless, not all SPACs to have emerged over the previous couple of years have efficiently merged with one other enterprise.
For instance, Liberty Media Acquisition Company (LMAC), a particular objective acquisition firm launched by media big Liberty Media two years in the past, unwound on the finish of final 12 months following a shareholder vote approving the transfer.
That was as a result of LMAC didn’t merge with a possible goal after going public on the Nasdaq Inventory Change in January 2021. The corporate raised $575 million on the time.
In the meantime, a SPAC launched by long-time Geffen Data President Neil Jacobson, The Music Acquisition Company (TMAC), floated on the New York Inventory Change in February 2021 under the ticker symbol TMAC.U, elevating $230 million within the course of.
TMAC.U, fashioned particularly to impact a merger/acquisition within the worlds of each music rights and music tech has been largely quiet since then – one thing that now doesn’t look more likely to change within the close to future.
However TMAC.U delisted from the New York Stock Exchange final December, following a shareholder vote to liquidate, with the corporate having did not discover a enterprise to merge with.
Music Enterprise Worldwide
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