SPAC IPO Market Slowly Resurfaces With Play-it-Safe Accounting

The blank-check companies that captivated Wall Street for a year are playing it safe with their accounting as the market slowly recovers from a financial reporting crackdown that halted initial public offerings.

The majority of the almost three dozen special purpose acquisition companies that went public since the Securities and Exchange Commission’s market-jolting accounting announcement in mid-April are sticking to what they know: the same investor terms and incentives they used prior to the SEC’s warning. This means less favorable accounting that produces swings in earnings.

The upshot: SPACs may not want warrants with terms that make them report the ...