ANALYSIS: SPACs Go Splat; I-Banks Refuse to Write Blank Checks

The SPAC industry boomed but it’s now gone bust in the face of market forces and a proposed SEC rulemaking that’s “designed to stop SPACs in their tracks,” according to SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce.

SPACs have declined from 298 IPOs in the first quarter of 2021 to 55 in the first quarter of this year, and have notched only 13 IPOs through May 15 of the current quarter. Although most of that decline is market-based, the proposed rules and amendments issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission March 30 are already having an outsized effect and are more ...