Israeli SPAC (blank check company) ION Acquisition Corp. has filed to raise $253 million on the NYSE for the ION Acquisition 2 fund. This follows hard on the heels of the news earlier this week that the ION Acquisition 1 fund, which raised $259 million last October, is merging with Israeli company Taboola, at a valuation of $2.6 billion for the media content recommendation and discovery platform.
A SPAC is a special purpose acquisition company, which raises capital and is given a 'blank check' by investors to subsequently merge into an existing company. ION plans to merge with another tech company. The underwriters for the ION Acquisition Fund 2 offering are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and AmeriVest Securities.
ION, led by chairman Jonathan Kolber and CEO Gilad Shani, is part of the ION Asset Management investment funds group, which has $1.5 billion under management in hedge funds and private equity funds, and was founded by Stephen Levey and Jonathan Half.
SPACS are all the rage on Wall Street with such companies raising $82 billion in 2020 and $20 billion so far in 2021.
The ION Acquisition 1 fund - Taboola merger was the second major recent SPAC merger for an Israeli company after auto lidar technology company Innoviz merged with SPAC company Collective Growth Corp. (Nasdaq: CGRO) at a company valuation of $1.4 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 27, 2021
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