Former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs are teaming up with Shaquille O’Neal to form a second SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company.
The new company, named Forest Road Acquisition Corp. II, aims to raise $300 million with an eye towards businesses in the technology, media, telecommunications, and consumer (TMTC) space, according to an SEC filing Thursday night. Mayer and Staggs will serve as co-CEOs of this SPAC, with O’Neal as a special advisor.
For the SPAC formed last year (Forest Road Acquisition Corp.) Mayer serves as a strategic adviser and Staggs as director and chairman of the Strategic Advisory Committee. O’Neal is a special advisor for that one as well.
Mayer and Staggs have pretty busy together. Along with their now-two different SPACs, they are in talks to buy Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings and Ben Silverman’s Propagate Content as part of a larger roll-up of independent content companies. This possible venture would be unrelated to Forest Road.
SPACs, occasionally referred to as “blank check companies,” are shell companies designed to allow investors to pool capital to fund mergers or acquisitions with the intention of finding opportunities after establishing the company. They typically serve as a way for individual investors to participate in actions normally reserved for professional investment companies.
According to investment experts, SPACs represent low-risk, high-reward potential for fast-growing companies to go public. “It has started to build exponentially beyond private equity, as other industries like Hollywood realized they possess reach to investors and understand how to build a storyline,” Burke Dempsey, executive vice president head of investment banking at Wedbush, recently told TheWrap. “It’s like, if you don’t have a SPAC, where have you been? What are you going to say at your next cocktail party on Zoom?”
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