Gores, SPAC Backers End UWM Merger Dispute for $17.5 Million

Prolific SPAC sponsor Alec Gores and other architects of United Wholesale Mortgage LLC’s blank-check merger have reached a $17.5 million settlement to resolve investor claims they engineered a windfall for insiders in the 2021 transaction.

UWM Holdings Corp., the publicly traded entity created in the $16 billion merger, agreed to pay the settlement in cash, under the terms of the accord approved Tuesday by the Delaware Chancery Court.

The settlement “shows a meaningful recovery for the class and is fair and reasonable on balance,” Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will said in a bench ruling in Wilmington, Del.

The litigation was ...