ANALYSIS: What If Half the SPACs Don’t De-SPAC?

With only 38 SPAC IPOs announced last month, headlines about a bursting—or already-burst—SPAC market bubble abound. But for M&A dealmakers, the SPAC work is far from over.

More than 400 trading U.S. SPACs are still searching for private companies to take public. Even if half of these SPACs fail to make it to the finish line by merging with a private company, the M&A market can still reasonably count at least a couple hundred “de-SPAC” deals in the pipeline.

Of all currently trading U.S. special purpose acquisition companies that went public on or after Jan. 1, 2020, 423 SPACs ...