ANALYSIS: SPACs’ Boom, Gloom, and Doom After New SEC Rules (1)

Are SPACs doomed? The SPAC industry enjoyed an unprecedented pandemic boom, followed by widespread gloom over rising interest rates and the prospect of restrictive new SEC rules. Now that gloomy feeling may be giving way to a sensation more akin to doom following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s adoption of expansive new SPAC (more broadly, blank check company) rules last week that threaten SPACs’ continued relevance. Those new rules will become effective July 1.

In her official statement on the adoption of the new rules, Commissioner Hester Peirce—who, along with Commissioner Mark Uyeda, dissented—said that the Commission’s “action will ...