Item 1. Business
Item 1.
Business.
Introduction
We are a blank check company formed as a Delaware corporation for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination, which we refer to throughout this Report as our initial business combination, with one or more businesses or entities. We have generated no operating revenues to date and we do not expect that we will generate operating revenues until we consummate our initial business combination.
We completed our IPO on September 7, 2021 and the proceeds of our IPO are held in a trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders. We may use such amounts to help fund our initial business combination, subject to the right of our public stockholders to have their shares of common stock of our company redeemed in connection with our initial business combination.
While we may pursue an acquisition in any business industry or sector, we intend to concentrate our efforts identifying businesses in the FinTech or financial services industry with an enterprise value of approximately $750 million to $1.5 billion, with particular emphasis on businesses that are providing or changing technology for traditional financial services (“FinTech”), those in the wealth, investment, asset management and insurance sectors, or certain types of technology companies that provide services to the FinTech or financial services companies. Such companies might include those providing artificial intelligence, blockchain, data and analytics, tech-enabled services, risk/compliance/KYC/AML solutions, including those focused on financial, regulatory, fraud and cybersecurity risk, and/or enterprise software solutions, among others. In addition, we intend to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify and acquire a business in the Fintech or financial services industries that can benefit from our experience and differentiated global network.
Company History
On September 7, 2021, we consummated our IPO of 24,000,000 units (the “Units”). Each Unit consists of one share of Class A common stock of the company, par value $0.0001 per share, and one-half
of one redeemable warrant of the company (“Warrant”), with each whole Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A common stock for $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment. The Units were sold at a price of $10.00 per Unit, generating gross proceeds to the company of $240,000,000. The company granted the underwriters of the IPO, a 45-day
option to purchase up to 3,600,000 additional Units solely to cover over-allotments, if any.
Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, the company completed the private sale of an aggregate of 7,500,000 warrants (the “Sponsor Private Placement Warrants”) to Insight Acquisition Sponsor LLC at a purchase price of $1.00 per Private Placement Warrant, generating gross proceeds to the company of $7,500,000. In addition, simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, the company completed the private sale of an aggregate of 1,200,000 warrants (the “UW Private Placement Warrants” and together with the Sponsor Private Placement Warrants, the “Private Placement Warrants”) to Cantor and Odeon at a purchase price of $1.00 per Private Placement Warrant, generating gross proceeds to the company of $1,200,000.
The Private Placement Warrants are identical to the Warrants sold in the IPO, except that the Private Placement Warrants, so long as they are held by the purchasers thereof or their permitted transferees, (i) are not redeemable by the company, (ii) may not (including the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of such Private Placement Warrants), subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by such holders until 30 days after the completion of the company’s initial business combination, (iii) may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis and (iv) are subject to the lock-up
and registration rights limitations imposed by FINRA Rule 5110. No underwriting discounts or commissions were paid with respect to such sale. The issuance of the Private Placement Warrants was made pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
A total of $241,200,000, comprised of $232,500,000 of the proceeds from the IPO (which amount includes $12,000,000 of the underwriters’ deferred discount) and $8,700,000 of the proceeds of the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, was placed in a U.S.-based trust account at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. maintained by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, acting as trustee. Except with respect to interest earned on the funds held in the trust account that may be released to the company to pay its taxes, the funds held in the trust account will not be released from the trust account until the earliest of (i) the completion of the company’s initial business combination, (ii) the redemption of any shares of Class A common stock included in the Units sold in the IPO (“public shares”) properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend the company’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of the company’s obligation to redeem 100% of the public shares if the company does not complete its initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the IPO, or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial
business combination activity and (iii) the redemption of the public shares if the company is unable to complete an initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of the IPO, subject to applicable law.
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On October 16, 2021, the 45-day
over-allotment option granted to the underwriters of our IPO expired unexercised.
On October 20, 2021, we announced that holders of the Units may elect to separately trade the Class A Common Stock and Warrants. Those Units not separated will continue to trade on the NYSE under the symbol “INAQ.U,” and the Class A common stock and redeemable warrants that are separated will trade on the NYSE under the symbols “INAQ” and “INAQ WS,” respectively.
Business Strategy
Our business strategy is to identify and complete a business combination that creates long-term value for our stockholders. Our investment team is well positioned to successfully identify attractive opportunities with growth-stage FinTech and related technology companies, as well as with Wealth or Investment management firms. With our prior investment experience and extensive networks, we are confident that we can successfully execute an initial business combination.
We believe that applying Insight’s approach to investing, and leveraging Insight’s network, resources and expertise, will help our management team execute on our business strategy:
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Growth mindset.
Insight looks to partner with future market leading companies with several years of sustained growth, with a history of customer trust and engagement and a business model that is reflective of the value they provide. These companies often have potential for a sustained category leadership position, and we will leverage Insight’s experience in identifying growth-stage companies with the potential to become market leaders.
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Management-focused, partnership-oriented approach.
We will aim to align with the strategy and goals of the management team we partner with. By partnering with existing management, we believe that we can build upon management’s existing traction and support them as they strive to achieve category leadership, while minimizing the business disruption associated with a leadership transition.
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Long investment horizon
. Insight is a long-term investor and our goal is to help companies transform into industry leaders, and to be supportive along the way by continuing to serve on the Board of Directors. We will target companies where we can be a long-term partner, supporting their path towards market leadership.
We believe there are many potential targets within the FinTech (as well as adjacent technologies), asset and wealth management, and broader financial services sectors that could become attractive public companies. These potential targets exhibit a broad range of business models and financial characteristics from mature businesses with recurring revenues and strong cash flows to high growth innovative companies.
We do not intend to limit our search to one segment of the financial services ecosystem, but will instead target a wide variety of companies across the financial services and technology sectors, with a focus on FinTech and adjacent technologies. The FinTech sector, for example, saw $45.3 billion of financing volume in 2020. Q1 2021 was the largest and most active quarter ever for FinTech financing activity with over $29 billion in volume across more than 750 transactions
During the same period, there was an active IPO market, with six US FinTech initial public offerings. Additionally, 2021 was an active year for special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) transactions (16 completed through June 2021) in the FinTech sector, or mergers between FinTech companies and SPACs, with announced deal values of $54.9 billion. Total announced merger and acquisition (“M&A”) dollar volume reached $95 billion in Q1 2021, with 21 deals all valued over $1 billion, the most ever in a single quarter
The wealth industry has attracted the attention of private equity investors due to its steady growth, high profit margins, consistent cash flow, and low capital requirements. M&A across the vertical remains a principal path to solving strategic challenges and repositioning businesses for growth. Transaction activity remained high in 2020 with 253 announced transactions, a slight reduction year-over-year with the previous year’s 270 transactions. The 2020 transactions included 51 traditional asset manager sales, 51 alternative asset manager sales, and 151 private wealth manager sales. 2020 deal activity was spread across firms with different sizes of assets under management (“AUM”). The transacted AUM rose to $2.9 trillion, implying an average AUM per transaction of $11.6 billion in 2020 versus $1.3 trillion in AUM transacted in 2019, implying an average AUM per transaction of $4.67 billion for that year.
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According to McKinsey & Company research, in 2000, the North American wealth management industry totaled $13 trillion in client assets, which grew by approximately 45%, reaching roughly $19 trillion in 2010. There were approximately 420,000 advisors in the US and Canada in 2010. By the end of the third quarter of 2020, the industry was managing a record-high $34.7 trillion in client assets, with annualized year-to-date net flows
at a healthy 2.6%. While as of 2018, the total number of advisors remained largely unchanged from 2010, the advisor workforce aged materially in the US, with only 25% under the age of 44, compared to 33% in 2010. Future industry consolidation will be driven by the fact that a substantial number of advisors are expected to retire over the next decade with their managed assets becoming available for acquisition. These retirements are further fueled by the level of education and professional competency demanded of advisors. The industry is also experiencing a substantial transfer of generational assets and an influx of new generational assets, with a direction towards advisors and companies possessing strong technology. As a consequence, businesses are constantly looking to implement, invest or acquire technology platforms that can further their growth and differentiate their product offerings. This disruption and change in the delivery of financial services includes, among others, digital payments, digital advice (robo-advice), exchanges and trading platforms, the use of big data and artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital assets. As modelled by Aite Group, assets managed on digital investment platforms are set to increase from AUM of $343 billion in the third quarter of 2019 to $1.68 trillion by 2025 and according to Juniper Research, consumer spending via digital wallets will exceed $10 trillion in 2025, an 83% increase from the $5.5 trillion spent via digital wallets in 2020. According to the Ernst & Young Global Capital Confidence Barometer, 89% of wealth and asset managers that responded to their surveys agreed that digital transformation will present them with opportunities to reposition their overall business strategy and reshape their portfolios. Of the executives surveyed, 77% believe that their chief executive has a clear vision to achieve accelerated digital transformation through M&A. With increased adoption of technology solutions by consumers and businesses alike, we believe that all components of the industry including both mature and innovative newcomers are poised for continued growth in overall market size and penetration. Key industry characteristics include long-term organic growth, attractive competitive dynamics, and further consolidation opportunities to scale. Key business characteristics include high barriers to entry, low risk of technological obsolescence, and public market-ready scale. Key financial metrics include organic revenue growth, recurring revenues, and strong cash flow conversion. We will seek to acquire established businesses that we believe are fundamentally sound, but potentially would benefit from the financial, operational, technological, strategic or managerial improvements our company and management team can provide to maximize value. We will also look at earlier-stage companies that exhibit the potential to transform the industries in which they participate, and which offer the potential of sustained high levels of revenue growth.
Our Past SPAC Company Blank Check Experience
Jeffrey Gary, who is our CEO and CFO, was an officer and director of Fusion Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: FUSE; “Fusion I”), a special purpose acquisition company that completed its initial public offering in June 2020 in which it sold units, each consisting of one share of Class A common stock and one-half of one
warrant to purchase one share of Class A common stock for an offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating aggregate proceeds of approximately $350,000,000.
On September 22, 2021, Fusion I closed its agreement and plan of merger with MoneyLion Inc. (“MoneyLion”), pursuant to which, among other things, MoneyLion became a wholly owned subsidiary of Fusion I. In connection with the business combination, Fusion I raised $250 million through a private placement of shares of its Class A common stock at a price of $10.00 per share. Mr. Gary remains a member of the board of directors of MoneyLion.
Jeffrey Gary, who is our CEO and CFO, was also an officer and director of Fusion Acquisition II Corp. (NYSE: FSNB; “Fusion II”), a special purpose acquisition company that completed its initial public offering in February 2021 in which it sold units, each consisting of one share of Class A common stock and one-third of one
warrant to purchase one share of Class A common stock for an offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating aggregate proceeds of approximately $500,000,000.
Our Management Team
We will seek to capitalize on the financial services experience and contacts of the members of our board of directors (“Board) and management team, including Michael Singer, our Executive Chairman, and Jeffrey Gary, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to identify, evaluate, and acquire a target business.
Michael Singer, our Executive Chairman, is the Managing Partner of Alternative Insight, LLC. In 2017, he formed Alternative Insight LLC to serve as management company for his investment management activities, directorships and consultancy. He was Executive Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of National Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: NHLD), which was sold to B. Riley Financial in February 2021. From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Singer was Chief Executive Officer and President of Ramius (Cowen Investment Management). Prior to that, he was Head of Alternative Investments at Third Avenue Management. From 2004 to 2009, he was co-President
of Ivy Asset Management, an institutional fund of hedge funds business. Mr. Singer began his career at Weiss, Peck & Greer, where he spent nine years and served as Senior Managing Director and Executive Committee Member. Mr. Singer received his Juris Doctorate from the Emory University School of Law and Bachelor of Science degree in accounting with honors from Penn State University. He is an attorney and CPA.
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Jeffrey Gary is our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Gary has a 30-year
track record in the investment and financial services industry, including significant M&A experience. He is an experienced board member and investor, having worked on numerous transactions with SPACs and public and private equity companies and has directly led audit, fiduciary, and corporate governance committees of these companies. He was on the on the board of directors of National Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: NHLD) (February 2019 to February 2021), where he also served as the chair of the audit committee until the successful sale of National to B. Riley Financial in February 2021. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Arca US Treasury Mutual Fund and is the Audit Committee Chair (since December 2019). Mr. Gary also sits on the advisory boards for Monroe Capital (since January 2020) and two FinTech companies, DealBox (since May 2019) and Total Network Service/Digital Names (since May 2019). From October 2018 to March 2020, Mr. Gary served on the board of directors of the Axonic Alternative Income Mutual Fund. Previously, Mr. Gary was a senior portfolio manager and led investment teams at Avenue Capital Group (from January 2012 to July 2018), Third Avenue (from May 2009 to December 2010), BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) (“BlackRock”) (from September 2003 to December 2008), AIG/American General (NYSE: AIG) (from May 1998 to September 2003), and Koch Industries (from September 1996 to April 1998) where he invested across all asset classes with a focus on the high-yield, bank loan and distressed markets. During this time, he operated in a variety of roles, which included presenting each quarter on regulatory, compliance, shareholder, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and other SEC matters to the Board. His role also included making investments and negotiating capital structures for numerous corporate buyout and acquisition transactions. He also successfully launched and managed several new investment businesses between 1996 and 2018, and was an angel investor/advisor for a start-up
healthcare company. For a number of years, Mr. Gary was the portfolio manager for numerous NYSE-listed funds. Mr. Gary also sat as an investment committee member at BlackRockKelso Capital BDC (Nasdaq: BKCC) (“BKCC”) from February 2005 to December 2008, where he was involved with the review and approval of all private equity and credit investments, and was a team member in the launch and initial public offering of BKCC. Additionally, Mr. Gary was employed at Avenue Capital from January 2012 to July 2018. He started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior auditor from September 1984 to June 1987 and later as a senior analyst at Citigroup (NYSE: C) from July 1987 to July 1988. From August 1988 to December 2002, Mr. Gary was an investment banker at Mesirow Financial. From January 1993 to August 1996, he was a senior distressed analyst at Cargill, Inc. Mr. Gary served as a Board Director and Chief Financial Officer of Fusion I from June 2020 until its business combination with MoneyLion in September 2021 and continues to be a Board Director of MoneyLion. Mr. Gary served on the Board of Directors and as the Chief Financial Officer of Fusion II from February 2021 until January 2022. Mr. Gary earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Penn State University in 1984 and a Master of Business Administration in Finance and International Business from Northwestern University (Kellogg) in 1991. Mr. Gary is a Certified Public Accountant.
David Brosgol, one of our directors, is General Counsel of Voyager Digital, a crypto-asset trading platform for retail and institutional investors. Prior to joining Voyager Digital in February 2021, Mr. Brosgol worked with Anchorage, a crypto-native custodian and digital asset platform as a Manager and Advisor, from December 2019 to November 2020. From October 2017 to April 2019, he was a Founder, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Digital Asset Custody Company (“DACC”). Prior to its acquisition by Bakkt, DACC was a pioneer in the digital asset space providing institutional custody of digital assets. From June 2016 to October 2017, Mr. Brosgol was General Counsel and Managing Director at Maverick Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund manager. Mr. Brosgol earned a B.A. in Economics from Trinity College in 1990, an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Essex in 1992 and a J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1995.
Victor Pascucci, III, one of our directors, has served as Managing Partner at Energy Capital Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on the energy sector, and an Advisory Partner at IA Capital, an early- stage venture capital fund focused on the insurance and fintech sector, each since January 2020. From January 2017 to January 2020, Mr. Pascucci was Managing Partner at Lightbank, an early stage venture capital firm where he led investments in Clearcover, Extend and Billtrim. From August 2016 to January 2017, he was Venture Partner and Investment Director at Munich Re | HSB Ventures, a Global 100 diversified insurance company where he led investments in insurtech. From September 2015 to August 2016, he was a Consultant and Advisor at Attraction Ventures LLC, a consulting practice to corporate venture capital programs and venture capital firms. From 2011 to September 2015, Mr. Pascucci was Head of Corporate Development of USAA, an integrated financial services company with a $330M fintech and insurtech fund. Investments while at USAA included Coinbase, MX, ID.me, Prosper Marketplace, Cartera Commerce and TRUECar. Also at USAA, Mr. Pascucci held leadership positions in the General Counsel division and Enterprise Strategy & Transformation. In addition, since January 2019, he has served as an independent consultant, board member and advisor to entrepreneurs and venture backed companies, including Axio Global Inc., EnergyCX, Edmit, ID.me Inc, Leaplife, Clearcover and Paceline. Mr. Pascucci earned a B.A. in Communications from Bowling Green State University in 1992 and a J.D. from the University of Toledo College of Law.
William Ullman, one of our directors, is the Chief Executive Officer of Water Street Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor. He is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Daily FinQ, a mobile application designed to help Americans become smarter about money and finance, since 2019. Mr. Ullman has been a board member of Van Eck Associates Corp., a New York based investment firm, since 2010. He also currently serves as a special advisor to FinTech Collective, a venture capital firm, a member of the board of directors of the Capital Returns Fund, since 2010, and a senior advisor to Berkshire Global, since 2020. From 2016 to 2018, Mr. Ullman served as Chief Commercial Officer of Orchard Platform and Chief Executive Officer of its broker-dealer subsidiary (Orchard Platform Markets LLC) prior to its sale to Kabbage in 2018. From 2006 to 2016, he was the founder of Right
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Wall Capital Management LLC, a firm focused on investing in the financial services sector, including financial technology companies. From 2001 to 2006, Mr. Ullman was the Senior Managing Director, Global Clearing Services at Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. Mr. Ullman earned an A.B. in History from Princeton University in 1985 and an M.B.A. from the Anderson School at UCLA in 1989.
We believe that the members of our Board and management team’s extensive relationships that were developed over their respective substantial careers at leading financial institutions, as well as their collective executive experience in financial services, FinTech, and the financial markets, will allow us to identify and complete an attractive initial business combination. Similarly, we believe their experience in founding, nurturing, and growing multiple businesses, including asset managers and FinTech businesses, will serve as a valuable foundation to locate and consummate an initial business combination in the financial services industry.
The past performance of our management team or their respective affiliates is not a guarantee of either: (i) success with respect to any business combination we may consummate; or (ii) that we will be able to identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination. You should not rely on the historical record of our management team’s or their respective affiliates’ performance as indicative of any future performance.
For more information on the experience and background of our management team, see the section entitled “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.”
Business Combination Criteria and Process
Consistent with our business strategy, we have identified the following general criteria and guidelines that we believe are important in evaluating prospective target businesses. We will use these criteria and guidelines in evaluating initial business combination opportunities, but we may decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet these criteria and guidelines. We intend to seek to acquire companies in the FinTech, wealth, asset or investment management or insurance tech (insurtech) sectors or companies that provide technology enabled services to these sectors in the valuation range of $750 million to $1.5 billion that we believe:
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are fundamentally sound and can unlock and enhance stockholder value through a combination with us, thereby offering attractive risk-adjusted returns for our stockholders;
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have strong, experienced management teams, or provide a platform to assemble an effective management team with a track record of driving growth and profitability;
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are at an inflection point, such as requiring additional capital to fund growth through increased marketing and technology spending, are able to innovate through new operational techniques, or where we believe we can drive improved financial performance;
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can benefit from the application and exploitation of financial service technologies;
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have a history of, or potential for, strong, stable free cash flow generation, with predictable and recurring revenue streams;
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can grow both organically and where we believe our ability to source proprietary opportunities and execute transactions will help the business grow through additional acquisitions
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have a leading or defendable market position and that demonstrate advantages when compared to their competitors, which may help to create barriers to entry against new competitors;
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can benefit from being a publicly traded company, with access to broader capital markets, to achieve the company’s growth strategy;
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exhibit unrecognized value or other characteristics that we believe can be enhanced based on our analysis and due diligence review;
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are disrupting large market segments with a large total addressable market. As part of the evaluation process, we will diligence the market segment to thoroughly understand the underlying drivers, business model and competitive environment;
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businesses with substantially mitigated product risk, through proven models, meaningful revenue, and strong unit economics;
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companies that are ready to scale, where we can provide support and industry expertise to support them in scaling their business and executing on their strategic vision; and
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world class firms and management teams looking for an active capital partner that will support their growth with experience and expertise, in addition to capital.
These criteria are not intended to be exhaustive. Any evaluation relating to the merits of a particular initial business combination may be based, to the extent relevant, on these general guidelines as well as other considerations, factors and criteria that our management team may deem relevant. In the event that we decide to enter into our initial business combination with a target business that does not meet the above criteria and guidelines, we will disclose that the target business does not meet the above criteria in our stockholder communications related to our initial business combination, which, as discussed in this Report, would be in the form of proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we would file with the SEC. In evaluating a prospective target business, we expect to conduct a due diligence review which may encompass, among other things, meetings with incumbent management and employees, document reviews, interviews of customers and suppliers, inspections of facilities, as well as reviewing financial and other information which will be made available to us.
We intend to pursue an initial business combination with a high-quality growth company that has the potential to become a market leader. We will apply our experience in sourcing and executing transactions to identify and negotiate a combination with what we believe is an exceptional business. Our team has extensive expertise in the FinTech and Wealth, Asset and Investment management and insurtech sectors, and we expect that our ultimate target will be in one of those fields, although we may consummate a transaction with a business in a different industry.
In recent years, private technology companies have created extraordinary value through rapid growth at significant scale. Innovative firms are leveraging new technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence to disrupt traditional industries and establish new markets. Furthermore, the global COVID-19 pandemic
has accelerated digital transformation across the globe, providing a tailwind for technology disruptors across all industries. As the world adapts to the new normal and continues to adopt these newly created solutions and services, we believe that technology companies with the right market fit are positioned to benefit from significant value creation.
Despite these large market opportunities, technology companies have been remaining private for longer. Availability of private capital has enabled these businesses to grow at scale to “unicorn” valuations and beyond. We believe these investment opportunities will be attractive to public investors and that we are ideally positioned to take these companies public.
Technology companies in their growth stage benefit materially from being publicly-traded. Newly public companies benefit from expanded access to capital markets, a more liquid currency for potential acquisitions and growth capital and increased brand awareness. In addition, a business combination with Insight Acquisition Corp. would provide such companies with additional benefits including a more expeditious route to the public markets, an opportunity to broadly share growth plans through filed forecasts, and earlier certainty of capital through the inclusion of a potential PIPE, when compared to a traditional IPO. Partnering with our management team, who are known for supporting high-growth FinTech and Wealth, Asset and Investment management companies, provides an attractive mechanism to go public.
As part of the evaluation process, we expect to conduct extensive due diligence to assess the company’s market opportunity, competitive positioning, business model and financial profile. Our review process may include, among other things, interviews with competitors, customers and vendors, analysis of significant risks and opportunities, meetings with management and employees, and review of other relevant information which may encompass, among other things, document reviews, inspections of facilities, as well as reviewing financial and other information which will be made available to us.
Initial Business Combination
The rules of the NYSE and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation require that we must complete one or more business combinations having an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of the value of the assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting commissions and taxes payable on the interest earned on the trust account) at the time of our signing a definitive agreement in connection with our initial business combination. Our board of directors will make the determination as to the fair market value of our initial business combination. If our board of directors is not able to independently determine the fair market value of our initial business combination, we will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm with respect to the satisfaction of such criteria. While we consider it unlikely that our board of directors will not be able to make an independent determination of the fair market value of our initial business combination, it may be unable to do so if it is less familiar or experienced with the business of a particular target or if there is a significant amount of uncertainty as to the value of the target’s assets or prospects.
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We anticipate structuring our initial business combination so that the post-transaction company in which our public stockholders own shares will own or acquire 100% of the equity interests or assets of the target business or businesses. We may, however, structure our initial business combination such that the post-transaction company owns or acquires less than 100% of such interests or assets of the target business in order to meet certain objectives of the target management team or stockholders or for other reasons, but we will only complete such business combination if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities of the target or otherwise acquires a controlling interest in the target sufficient for it not to be required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”). Even if the post-transaction company owns or acquires 50% or more of the voting securities of the target, our stockholders prior to the business combination may collectively own a minority interest in the post-transaction company, depending on valuations ascribed to the target and us in the business combination transaction. For example, we could pursue a transaction in which we issue a substantial number of new shares in exchange for all of the outstanding capital stock of a target. In this case, we would acquire a 100% controlling interest in the target. However, as a result of the issuance of a substantial number of new shares, our stockholders immediately prior to our initial business combination could own less than a majority of our outstanding shares subsequent to our initial business combination. If less than 100% of the equity interests or assets of a target business or businesses are owned or acquired by the post-transaction company, the portion of such business or businesses that is owned or acquired is what will be taken into account for purposes of the 80% of net assets test described above. If the business combination involves more than one target business, the 80% of net assets test will be based on the aggregate value of all of the target businesses.
We intend to effectuate our initial business combination using cash from the proceeds of our IPO and the private placement of the private placement warrants, the proceeds of the sale of our shares in connection with our initial business combination (pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop agreements we may enter into), shares issued to the owners of the target, debt issued to bank or other lenders or the owners of the target, or a combination of the foregoing. We may seek to complete our initial business combination with a company or business that may be financially unstable or in its early stages of development or growth, which would subject us to the numerous risks inherent in such companies and businesses.
If our initial business combination is paid for using equity or debt securities, or not all of the funds released from the trust account are used for payment of the consideration in connection with our initial business combination or used for redemptions of our Class A common stock, we may apply the balance of the cash released to us from the trust account for general corporate purposes, including for maintenance or expansion of operations of the post-transaction company, the payment of principal or interest due on indebtedness incurred in completing our initial business combination, to fund the purchase of other companies or for working capital.
We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us. Accordingly, there is no current basis for investors to evaluate the possible merits or risks of the target business with which we may ultimately complete our initial business combination. Although our management will assess the risks inherent in a particular target business with which we may combine, we cannot assure you that this assessment will result in our identifying all risks that a target business may encounter. Furthermore, some of those risks may be outside of our control, meaning that we can do nothing to control or reduce the chances that those risks will adversely affect a target business.
We may need to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination, either because the transaction requires more cash than is available from the proceeds held in our trust account or because we become obligated to redeem a significant number of our public shares upon completion of the business combination, in which case we may issue additional securities or incur debt in connection with such business combination. There are no prohibitions on our ability to issue securities or incur debt in connection with our initial business combination. We are not currently a party to any arrangement or understanding with any third party with respect to raising any additional funds through the sale of securities, the incurrence of debt or otherwise.
We filed a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with
the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. As a result, we are subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our initial business combination.
Sourcing of Potential Initial Business Combination Targets
We believe our management team’s significant operating and transaction experience and relationships will provide us with a substantial number of potential initial business combination targets. Over the course of their careers, the members of our management team and our directors and advisors have developed a broad network of contacts and corporate relationships around the world, which includes private equity firms, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. This network has grown through the activities of our management team sourcing, acquiring and financing businesses, the reputation of our management team for integrity and fair dealing with sellers, financing sources and target management teams and the experience of our management team in executing transactions under varying economic and financial market conditions. In addition, members of our management team have developed contacts derived directly from serving on the boards of directors of several public and private companies.
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This network has provided our management team with a flow of referrals, which in the past has resulted in numerous transactions which were proprietary or where a limited group of investors were invited to participate in the sale process. We believe that this network will provide us with multiple investment opportunities. In addition, we anticipate that target business combination candidates will be brought to our attention by various unaffiliated sources, including participants in our targeted markets and their advisors, private equity funds and large business enterprises seeking to divest non-core assets
or divisions.
While we do not presently anticipate engaging the services of professional firms or other individuals that specialize in business acquisitions on any formal basis, we may engage these firms or other individuals in the future, in which event we may pay a finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation to be determined in an arm’s length negotiation based on the terms of the transaction. We will engage a finder only to the extent our management determines that the use of a finder may bring opportunities to us that may not otherwise be available to us or if finders approach us on an unsolicited basis with a potential transaction that our management determines is in our best interest to pursue. Payment of a finder’s fee is customarily tied to completion of a transaction, in which case any such fee will be paid out of the funds held in the trust account. In no event, however, will our sponsor or any of our existing officers or directors, or any entity with which they are affiliated, be paid any finder’s fee, consulting fee or other compensation by the company prior to, or for any services they render in order to effectuate, the completion of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is). In addition, we pay our sponsor $10,000 per month for office space, secretarial and administrative services provided to or incurred by members of our management team. We will also set aside up to, $15,000 per month for services rendered to us by members of our management team, subject to approval by our board of directors, commencing on the date that our securities were first listed on the NYSE through the earlier of consummation of our initial business combination and our liquidation. Any such payments prior to our initial business combination will be made from funds held outside the trust account. Other than the foregoing, there will be no finder’s fees, reimbursement, consulting fee, monies in respect of any payment of a loan or other compensation paid by us to our sponsor, officers or directors, or any affiliate of our sponsor or officers prior to, or in connection with any services rendered in order to effectuate, the consummation of our initial business combination (regardless of the type of transaction that it is).
We are not prohibited from pursuing an initial business combination with a company that is affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors, or completing the business combination through a joint venture or other form of shared ownership with our sponsor, executive officers or directors. In the event we seek to complete an initial business combination with a target that is affiliated with our sponsor, executive officers or directors, we, or a committee of independent directors, would obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm which is a member of FINRA or a valuation or appraisal firm stating that such an initial business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view.
Members of our management team and our independent directors directly or indirectly own founder shares and/or private placement warrants and, accordingly, may have a conflict of interest in determining whether a particular target business is an appropriate business with which to effectuate our initial business combination. Further, each of our officers and directors may have a conflict of interest with respect to evaluating a particular business combination if the retention or resignation of any such officers and directors was included by a target business as a condition to any agreement with respect to our initial business combination.
As described in “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance—Conflicts of Interest,” each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary or contractual obligations to another entity pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required to present a business combination opportunity to such entity. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for an entity to which he or she has then current fiduciary or contractual obligations, he or she will honor his or her fiduciary or contractual obligations to present such business combination opportunity to such other entity. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of the company and such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue, and to the extent the director or officer is permitted to refer that opportunity to us without violating another legal obligation.
In addition, our sponsor and our officers and directors may sponsor or form other special purpose acquisition companies similar to ours or may pursue other business or investment ventures during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. For example, Mr. Gary served as Chief Financial Officer and Director of Fusion I, a special purpose acquisition company that completed its initial public offering in June 2020, until its business combination with MoneyLion in September 2021 and remains a director of MoneyLion. Fusion I, like us, pursued initial business combination targets in any businesses or industries and had until December 30, 2021, to do so. Fusion II raised $500 million and as a result are focused on companies with an enterprise value of $1.5 billion to $5 billion which is larger than the target size for Insight. Mr. Gary also served as Chief Financial Officer and Director of Fusion II, a special purpose acquisition company that completed its initial public offering in February 2021, until January 2022. Fusion II, like us, may pursue initial business combination targets in any businesses or industries and has until March 2, 2023, to do so (absent an extension in accordance with their charters). Any such companies may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target. However, we do not believe that any such potential conflicts would materially affect our ability to identify and pursue business combination opportunities or to complete our initial business combination.
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Corporate Information
We are a blank check company incorporated as a Delaware corporation on April 20, 2021. Our executive offices are located at 333 East 91 st
Street, New York, New York 10128, and our telephone number is (917) 374-2922.
Our website address is www.insightacqcorp.com. Our website and the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the website is not deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and is not considered part of, this Annual Report.
Financial Position
With funds held in the trust account available for a business combination in the amount of approximately $241,205,192 as of December 31, 2021 assuming no redemptions and after payment of $12,000,000 of deferred underwriting commissions, before estimated offering and working capital expenses, we offer a target business a variety of options such as creating a liquidity event for its owners, providing capital for the potential growth and expansion of its operations or strengthening its balance sheet by reducing its debt ratio. Because we are able to complete our initial business combination using our cash, debt or equity securities, or a combination of the foregoing, we have the flexibility to use the most efficient combination that will allow us to tailor the consideration to be paid to the target business to fit its needs and desires. However, we have not taken any steps to secure third-party financing and there can be no assurance it will be available to us.
Lack of Business Diversification
For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our initial business combination, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business. Unlike other entities that have the resources to complete business combinations with multiple entities in one or several industries, it is probable that we will not have the resources to diversify our operations and mitigate the risks of being in a single line of business. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:
•
subject us to negative economic, competitive and regulatory developments, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact on the particular industry in which we operate after our initial business combination; and
•
cause us to depend on the marketing and sale of a single product or limited number of products or services.
Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team
Although we intend to closely scrutinize the management of a prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with that business, our assessment of the target business’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the target business cannot presently be stated with any certainty. The determination as to whether any of the members of our management team will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our initial business combination, it is unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our initial business combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.
We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination.
Following a business combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.
Stockholders May Not Have the Ability to Approve Our Initial Business Combination
We may conduct redemptions without a stockholder vote pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC subject to the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. However, we will seek stockholder approval if it is required by law or applicable stock exchange rule, or we may decide to seek stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons.
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Presented in the table below is a graphic explanation of the types of initial business combinations we may consider and whether stockholder approval is currently required under Delaware law for each such transaction.
TYPE OF TRANSACTION
WHETHER
STOCKHOLDER
APPROVAL IS REQUIRED
Purchase of assets
No
Purchase of stock of target not involving a merger with the company
No
Merger of target into a subsidiary of the company
No
Merger of the company with a target
Yes
Under the NYSE’s listing rules, stockholder approval would be required for our initial business combination if, for example:
•
We issue (other than in a public offering for cash) shares of common stock that will either (a) be equal to or in excess of 20% of the number of our shares of common stock then outstanding or (b) have voting power equal to or in excess of 20% of the voting power then outstanding;
•
Any of our directors, officers or substantial stockholders (as defined by the NYSE rules) has a 5% or greater interest, directly or indirectly, in the target business or assets to be acquired and if the number of shares of common stock to be issued, or if the number of shares of common stock in which the securities may be convertible or exercisable, exceeds either (a) 1% of the number of shares of common stock or 1% of the voting power outstanding before the issuance in the case of any of our directors and officers and (b) 5% of the number of shares of common stock or 5% of the voting power outstanding before the issuance in the case of any substantial securityholder; or
•
The issuance or potential issuance of common stock will result in our undergoing a change of control.
Permitted Purchases of Our Securities
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, executive officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares or public warrants in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following the completion of our initial business combination. There is no limit on the number of shares our initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase in such transactions, subject to compliance with applicable law and the NYSE rules. However, they have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for any such transactions. None of the funds in the trust account will be used to purchase shares or public warrants in such transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will be restricted from making any such purchases when they are in possession of any material non-public information
not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act.
In the event that our sponsor, initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules.
The purpose of any such purchases of shares could be to (i) vote such shares in favor of the business combination and thereby increase the likelihood of obtaining stockholder approval of the business combination or (ii) to satisfy a closing condition in an agreement with a target that requires us to have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash at the closing of our initial business combination, where it appears that such requirement would otherwise not be met. The purpose of any such purchases of public warrants could be to reduce the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to the warrantholders for approval in connection with our initial business combination. Any such purchases of our securities may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible.
In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A common stock or public warrants may be reduced and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, which may make it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.
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Our sponsor, initial stockholders, officers, directors and/or their affiliates anticipate that they may identify the stockholders with whom our initial stockholders, officers, directors or their affiliates may pursue privately negotiated purchases by either the stockholders contacting us directly or by our receipt of redemption requests submitted by stockholders (in the case of Class A common stock) following our mailing of proxy materials in connection with our initial business combination. To the extent that our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates enter into a private purchase, they would identify and contact only potential selling stockholders who have expressed their election to redeem their shares for a pro rata share of the trust account or vote against our initial business combination, whether or not such stockholder has already submitted a proxy with respect to our initial business combination but only if such shares have not already been voted at the stockholder meeting related to our initial business combination. Our sponsor, executive officers, directors, advisors or any of their affiliates will select which stockholders to purchase shares from based on a negotiated price and number of shares and any other factors that they may deem relevant, and will only purchase shares if such purchases comply with Regulation M under the Exchange Act and the other federal securities laws. Our sponsor, officers, directors and/or their affiliates will be restricted from making purchases of shares if the purchases would violate Section 9(a)(2) or Rule 10b-5 of
the Exchange Act. We expect any such purchases will be reported pursuant to Section 13 and Section 16 of the Exchange Act to the extent such purchases are subject to such reporting requirements.
Redemption Rights for Public Stockholders upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of Class A common stock upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations and on the conditions described herein. The per-share
amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. Our initial stockholders, sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares they may hold in connection with the completion of our initial business combination. The anchor investors will not be entitled to redemption rights with respect to any founder shares held by them in connection with the completion of our business combination.
Limitations on Redemptions
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. In addition, our proposed initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed initial business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the initial business combination or redeem any shares in connection with such initial business combination, and all shares of Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof. We may, however, raise funds through the issuance of equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, including pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop arrangements, in order to, among other reasons, satisfy such net tangible assets or minimum cash requirements.
Manner of Conducting Redemptions
We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their public shares upon the completion of our initial business combination either (i) in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the initial business combination or (ii) without a stockholder vote by means of a tender offer. The decision as to whether we will seek stockholder approval of a proposed initial business combination or conduct a tender offer will be made by us, solely in our discretion, and will be based on a variety of factors such as the timing of the transaction and whether the terms of the transaction would require us to seek stockholder approval under applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements. Asset acquisitions and stock purchases would not typically require stockholder approval while direct mergers with our company where we do not survive and any transactions where we issue more than 20% of our outstanding common stock or seek to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation would require stockholder approval. So long as we maintain a listing for our securities on the NYSE, we will be required to comply with the NYSE’s stockholder approval rules.
The requirement that we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares by one of the two methods listed above is contained in provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and will apply whether or not we maintain our registration under the Exchange Act or our listing on the NYSE. Such provisions may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock entitled to vote thereon. If we amend such provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, we will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares in connection with a stockholder meeting.
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If we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares in connection with a stockholder meeting, we will:
•
conduct the redemptions in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies, and not pursuant to the tender offer rules, and
•
file proxy materials with the SEC.
If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the initial business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at such meeting. Our initial stockholders will count towards this quorum and, pursuant to the letter agreement, our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to vote any founder shares they hold and any public shares purchased (including in open market and privately-negotiated transactions), and the anchor investors have agreed to vote any founder shares held by them, in favor of our initial business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding shares of common stock voted, non-votes will
have no effect on the approval of our initial business combination once a quorum is obtained. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders’ founder shares, we would need only 9,000,001, or 37.5%, of the 24,000,000 public shares sold in our IPO to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming all outstanding shares are voted), or 1,500,00,001, or 6.25%, of the 24,000,000 public shares sold in our IPO to be voted in favor of an initial business combination in order to have our initial business combination approved (assuming only the minimum number of shares are voted). These quorum and voting thresholds, and the voting agreements of our initial stockholders and the anchor investors, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction or whether they were a stockholder on the record date for the stockholder meeting held to approve the proposed transaction.
If a stockholder vote is not required and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other legal reasons, we will:
•
conduct the redemptions pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and
Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, which regulate issuer tender offers, and
•
file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination, which contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act, which regulates the solicitation of proxies.
In the event we conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, our offer to redeem will remain open for at least 20 business days, in accordance with Rule 14e-1(a) under
the Exchange Act, and we will not be permitted to complete our initial business combination until the expiration of the tender offer period. In addition, the tender offer will be conditioned on public stockholders not tendering more than a specified number of public shares, which number will be based on the requirement that we may not redeem public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. If public stockholders tender more shares than we have offered to purchase, we will withdraw the tender offer and not complete the initial business combination.
Upon the public announcement of our initial business combination, if we elect to conduct redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules, we or our sponsor will terminate any plan established in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 to
purchase shares of our Class A common stock in the open market, in order to comply with Rule 14e-5 under
the Exchange Act.
We intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their stock certificates to our transfer agent or deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) system, prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. The proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. We believe that this will allow our transfer agent to efficiently process any redemptions without the need for further communication or action from the redeeming public stockholders, which could delay redemptions and result in additional administrative cost. If the proposed initial business combination is not approved and we continue to search for a target company, we will promptly return any certificates or shares delivered by public stockholders who elected to redeem their shares.
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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. In addition, our proposed initial business combination may impose a minimum cash requirement for: (i) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners, (ii) cash for working capital or other general corporate purposes or (iii) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed initial business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the initial business combination or redeem any shares in connection with such initial business combination, and all shares of Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof. We may, however, raise funds through the issuance of equity-linked securities or through loans, advances or other indebtedness in connection with our initial business combination, including pursuant to forward purchase agreements or backstop arrangements, in order to, among other reasons, satisfy such net tangible assets or minimum cash requirements.
Limitation on Redemption Upon Completion of Our Initial Business Combination If We Seek Stockholder Approval
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the public shares, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares,” without our prior consent. We believe this restriction will discourage stockholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination as a means to force us or our management to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public stockholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in our IPO could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us, our sponsor or our management at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders’ ability to redeem no more than 15% of the shares sold in our IPO without our prior consent, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash.
However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.
Delivering Stock Certificates in Connection with the Exercise of Redemption Rights
As described above, we intend to require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to, at the holder’s option, either deliver their stock certificates to our transfer agent or deliver their shares to our transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) system, prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. In the case of proxy materials, this date may be up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination. In addition, if we conduct redemptions in connection with a stockholder vote, we intend to require a public stockholder seeking redemption of its public shares to also submit a written request for redemption to our transfer agent two business days prior to the vote in which the name of the beneficial owner of such shares is included. The proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements. Accordingly, a public stockholder would have up to two business days prior to the vote on the initial business combination if we distribute proxy materials, or from the time we send out our tender offer materials until the close of the tender offer period, as applicable, to submit or tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these or any other procedures disclosed in the proxy or tender offer materials, as applicable, its shares may not be redeemed. Given the relatively short exercise period, it is advisable for stockholders to use electronic delivery of their public shares.
There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through the DWAC system. The transfer agent will typically charge the broker submitting or tendering shares a fee of approximately $80.00 and it would be up to the broker whether or not to pass this cost on to the redeeming holder. However, this fee would be incurred regardless of whether or not we require holders seeking to exercise redemption rights to submit or tender their shares. The need to deliver shares is a requirement of exercising redemption rights regardless of the timing of when such delivery must be effectuated.
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Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to the date set forth in the proxy materials or tender offer documents, as applicable. Furthermore, if a holder of a public share delivered its certificate in connection with an election of redemption rights and subsequently decides prior to the applicable date not to elect to exercise such rights, such holder may simply request that the transfer agent return the certificate (physically or electronically). It is anticipated that the funds to be distributed to holders of our public shares electing to redeem their shares will be distributed promptly after the completion of our initial business combination.
If our initial business combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public stockholders who elected to exercise their redemption rights would not be entitled to redeem their shares for the applicable pro rata share of the trust account. In such case, we will promptly return any certificates delivered by public holders who elected to redeem their shares.
If our initial proposed initial business combination is not completed, we may continue to try to complete an initial business combination with a different target until 18 months from the closing of our IPO.
Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation if No Initial Business Combination
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we will have only 18 months from the closing of our IPO to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within such 18-month period,
we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, liquidate and dissolve, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the 18-month time
period.
Our initial stockholders, sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO or any extended period of time that we may have to consummate an initial business combination as a result of an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. However, if our initial stockholders, sponsor or management team or the anchor investors acquire public shares, they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the allotted 18-month time
period.
Our initial stockholders, sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a letter agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business
combination activity, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. However, we may not redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001. If this optional redemption right is exercised with respect to an excessive number of public shares such that we cannot satisfy the net tangible asset requirement, we would not proceed with the amendment or the related redemption of our public shares at such time.
We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts remaining out of the approximately $2,000,000 of proceeds held outside the trust account, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose. However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, to the extent that there is any interest accrued in the trust account not required to pay taxes, we may request the trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.
If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of our IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account and any tax payments or expenses for the dissolution of the trust, the per-share redemption
amount received by stockholders upon our dissolution would be approximately $10.05. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public stockholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per-share redemption
amount received by stockholders will not be substantially less than $10.05. Under Section 281(b) of the DGCL, our plan of dissolution must provide for all claims against us to be paid in full or make provision for payments to be made in full, as applicable, if there are sufficient assets. These claims must be paid or provided for before we make any distribution of our remaining assets to our stockholders. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors’ claims.
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Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses and other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will consider whether competitive alternatives are reasonably available to us and will only enter into an agreement with such third party if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be in the best interests of the company under the circumstances. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third-party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where management is unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. The underwriters of our IPO and our independent registered public accounting firm have not executed agreements with us waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have entered into a written letter of intent, confidentiality or other similar agreement or business combination agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.05 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.05 per public share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, less taxes payable, provided that such liability will not apply to any claims by a third party or prospective target business who executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) nor will it apply to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of our IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. However, we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations, nor have we independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.05 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.
In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of (i) $10.05 per public share and (ii) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account if less than $10.05 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case less taxes payable, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its indemnification obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in any particular instance. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of the per-share redemption
price will not be less than $10.05 per share.
We will seek to reduce the possibility that our sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the trust account. Our sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of our IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act.
Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If the corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice
period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period
during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting
period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution.
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Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO, is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful (potentially due to the imposition of legal proceedings that a party may bring or due to other circumstances that are currently unknown), then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO, we will: (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price,
payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any) and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. Accordingly, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following our 18 th
month and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with those procedures. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend well beyond the third anniversary of such date.
Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the subsequent 10 years. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective target businesses. As described above, pursuant to the obligation contained in our underwriting agreement, we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account. As a result of this obligation, the claims that could be made against us are significantly limited and the likelihood that any claim that would result in any liability extending to the trust account is remote. Further, our sponsor may be liable only to the extent necessary to ensure that the amounts in the trust account are not reduced below (i) $10.05 per public share or (ii) such lesser amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of the amount of interest withdrawn to pay taxes and will not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of our IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. In the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims.
If we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per share to our public stockholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our stockholders. Furthermore, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons.
Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only (i) in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO, (ii) in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO or with respect to any other material provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business
combination activity or (iii) if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of our initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a stockholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek stockholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a stockholder’s voting in connection with the business combination alone will not result in a stockholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such stockholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above. These provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, like all provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, may be amended with a stockholder vote.
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Comparison of Redemption or Purchase Prices in Connection with Our Initial Business Combination and if We Fail to Complete Our Initial Business Combination
The following table compares the redemptions and other permitted purchases of public shares that may take place in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO.
Redemptions in
Connection with our Initial
Business Combination
Other Permitted Purchases
of Public Shares by our
Affiliates
Redemptions if we fail to
Complete an Initial
Business Combination
Calculation of
redemption price
Redemptions at the time of our initial business combination may be made pursuant to a tender offer or in connection with a stockholder vote. The redemption price will be the same whether we conduct redemptions pursuant to a tender offer or in connection with a stockholder vote. In either case, our public stockholders may redeem their public shares for cash equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of the initial business combination, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitation that no redemptions will take place if all of the redemptions would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001.
If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may purchase shares in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market either prior to or following completion of our initial business combination. There is no limit to the prices that our initial stockholders, directors, officers, advisors or their affiliates may pay in these transactions. If they engage in such transactions, they will be restricted from making any such purchases when they are in possession of any material nonpublic information not disclosed to the seller or if such purchases are prohibited by Regulation M under the Exchange Act. We do not currently anticipate that such purchases, if any, would constitute a tender offer subject to the tender offer rules under the Exchange Act or a going-private transaction subject to the going-private rules under the Exchange Act; however, if the purchasers determine at the time of any such purchases that the purchases are subject to such rules, the purchasers will comply with such rules.
If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within 18 months from the closing of our IPO, we will redeem all public shares at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount, then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account (which interest shall be net of taxes payable and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares.
Impact to
remaining
stockholders
The redemptions in connection with our initial business combination will reduce the book value per share for our remaining stockholders, who will bear the burden of the deferred underwriting commissions and interest withdrawn in order to pay our taxes (to the extent not paid from amounts accrued as interest on the funds held in the trust account).
If the permitted purchases described above are made, there would be no impact to our remaining stockholders because the purchase price would not be paid by us.
The redemption of our public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination will reduce the book value per share for the shares held by our initial stockholders, who will be our only remaining stockholders after such redemptions.
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Competition
In identifying, evaluating and selecting a target business for our initial business combination, we may encounter competition from other entities having a business objective similar to ours, including other special purpose acquisition companies, private equity groups and leveraged buyout funds, public companies and operating businesses seeking strategic acquisitions. Many of these entities are well established and have extensive experience identifying and effecting business combinations directly or through affiliates. Moreover, many of these competitors possess greater financial, technical, human and other resources than us. Our ability to acquire larger target businesses will be limited by our available financial resources. This inherent limitation gives others an advantage in pursuing the acquisition of a target business. Furthermore, our obligation to pay cash in connection with our public stockholders who exercise their redemption rights may reduce the resources available to us for our initial business combination and our outstanding warrants, and the future dilution they potentially represent, may not be viewed favorably by certain target businesses. Either of these factors may place us at a competitive disadvantage in successfully negotiating an initial business combination.
Facilities
We currently utilize office space at 333 East 91 st
Street, New York, New York 10128 from our sponsor and the members of our management team. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.
Employees
We currently have two executive officers: Michael Singer and Jeffrey Gary. These individuals are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time they will devote in any time period will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the stage of the business combination process we are in. We do not intend to have any full time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination.
Periodic Reporting and Financial Information
We have registered our units, Class A common stock and warrants under the Exchange Act and have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports will contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accounting firm.
We will provide stockholders with audited financial statements of the prospective target business as part of the proxy solicitation materials or tender offer documents sent to stockholders to assist them in assessing the target business. In all likelihood, these financial statements will need to be prepared in accordance with, or reconciled to, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”), or international financial reporting standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”), depending on the circumstances, and the historical financial statements may be required to be audited in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”). These financial statement requirements may limit the pool of potential target businesses we may conduct an initial business combination with because some targets may be unable to provide such statements in time for us to disclose such statements in accordance with federal proxy rules and complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame. We cannot assure you that any particular target business identified by us as a potential business combination candidate will have financial statements prepared in accordance with the requirements outlined above, or that the potential target business will be able to prepare its financial statements in accordance with the requirements outlined above. To the extent that these requirements cannot be met, we may not be able to acquire the proposed target business. While this may limit the pool of potential business combination candidates, we do not believe that this limitation will be material.
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We will be required to evaluate our internal control procedures for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Only in the event we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer or an accelerated filer, and no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, will we be required to have our internal control procedures audited. A target business may not be in compliance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding adequacy of their internal controls. The development of the internal controls of any such entity to achieve compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may increase the time and costs necessary to complete any such business combination.
We have filed a Registration Statement on Form 8-A with
the SEC to voluntarily register our securities under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. As a result, we are subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Exchange Act. We have no current intention of filing a Form 15 to suspend our reporting or other obligations under the Exchange Act prior or subsequent to the consummation of our initial business combination.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act, as modified by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”). As such, we are eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory
vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the prices of our securities may be more volatile.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. In other words, an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We intend to take advantage of the benefits of this extended transition period.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our IPO, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our shares of Class A common stock that are held by non-affiliates exceeds
$700 million as of the prior June 30 th
, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt
securities during the prior three-year period.
Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller
reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds
$250 million as of the prior June 30 th
, and (2) our annual revenues exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds
$700 million as of the prior June 30 th
.
Legal Proceedings
There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such.
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Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.