, Columnist
SPACs Get Smacked Down by a More Assertive SEC
A slowdown in new SPAC issuance would be no bad thing.
A license to rip off investors?
This article is for subscribers only.
Investor Jeremy Grantham says special purpose acquisition companies, which raise money in an initial public offering and then find a promising company with which to merge, are a “license to rip investors off.” On an investing podcast in February, the co-founder of Boston’s GMO complained: “It's a testimonial to the sloppiness and slow-moving nature of the SEC that they haven't banned these things long ago.”
Such criticisms will have stung the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, whose core mission — besides aiding capital formation — is to protect the investing public and the integrity of financial markets.