Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: The SEC Is Coming for SPACs

Programming note: Money Stuff will be off tomorrow and Monday, back on Tuesday.

SPAC rules

People have two main objections to special purpose acquisition companies, the blank-check companies that raise a pool of money from public investors and then use it to take some private company public. First: Sometimes it can look like the private company is running a scam. Going public by merging with a SPAC is an alternative to a traditional initial public offering with somewhat more relaxed rules. In particular, it is generally accepted that SPAC targets can include projected future earnings in their filings marketing their ...