Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Every Monday, Bryan Glanzberg contributes The Water Cooler, a column that bridges the gap between technology and business. This week he is reporting from good ‘ol London

In the news the last few weeks, I have been reading a lot about SPAC.  At first, I questioned why they were talking so much about the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in the Wall Street Journal.  After a little further research, I learned that a SPAC is a special product acquisition company that is essentially a spin-off of a publicly traded company that goes out and searches for investors.  What makes them different is that the investors are pooling their money into a trust that is going to be used for some future merger, one which they have no idea about, nor do the SPAC that they are donating funds too.  The advantage of this investment tool is that you are essentially guaranteed to break even (except for interest).  This is known as a reverse IPO where a private company goes out and raises public funds before they announce they are actually going public.  It helps build up their infrastructure much better and makes them more attractive to the capital markets.  They typically receive the investment back in shares of stock valued at around $6/share.  If the company never goes public, the investors get their money back (minus interest of course).  It is a very interesting and hot tool in the market today. 

Now that I have just bored you to tears about what a SPAC is, the reason I found this interesting is because Apple just released some news about their former executives:

Three former Apple Computer executives, including former chief Gilbert Amelio and co-founder Steve Wozniak, have raised $150 million for company whose sole purpose is to search for technology-related acquisitions.

Their company, called Acquicor Technology, is just the latest in a recent flurry of special-purpose acquisition companies — also known as blank-check companies or SPAC’s — that have sold shares to the public even before finding a business to buy. Another SPAC, called Services Acquisition Corporation, agreed earlier this week to buy privately held Jamba Juice in a $265 million deal.

I am sorry, but what the hell is Steve Wozniak doing with Jamba Juice?  Does he want to get jacked up and beat the s**t out of his computer?  Did Excel get the best out of him?  I love geeks that just invest in whatever looks nice to them, despite whether they know the business or not….sad thing is….I wish I had that kind of money.  If you care to donate please email me…I am an attractive male, 5’11”, blonde hair…...ahh forget it. 

Read [Dealbook]