On June 17 and 18, DealFlow Events held its annual SPAC conference, a long-standing gathering of key players in the SPAC ecosystem. I was once again invited to speak at the event, which provided an opportunity to explore...more
As they go through their initial public offering (IPO) and the subsequent merger & acquisition (M&A) process, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) face many regulatory, legal, and business hurdles. Obtaining the...more
There is significant complexity to the process of protecting a company and its directors and officers as they undertake the process of going public. This resource is your guide to the D&O insurance process for de-SPAC...more
The SPAC market is finally making a comeback. As we enter a period of the long-awaited SPAC revival, some liability dangers persist. Two common questions that keep being raised by our clients are: How much liability...more
2/21/2025
/ Corporate Governance ,
D&O Insurance ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Liability ,
Popular ,
Private Equity ,
Risk Management ,
Securities Litigation ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Venture Capital
After a two-and-a-half-year lull in SPAC activity, the second half of 2024 brought glimmers of sunshine to the otherwise gloomy world of SPACs. New SPAC IPO activity picked up pace in the summer of 2024 and continued to grow,...more
1/17/2025
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Governance ,
D&O Insurance ,
Derivative Suit ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Merger Agreements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Shareholders ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)
Today, Lynda A. Bennett and Heather Weaver of Lowenstein’s Insurance Recovery Group sit down with Yelena Dunaevsky, Senior Vice President, Transactional Insurance, at Woodruff Sawyer to talk about the current state of SPAC...more
As they go through their initial public offering (IPO) and the subsequent merger & acquisition (M&A) process, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) face many regulatory, legal, and business hurdles. Obtaining the...more
Woodruff Sawyer is the market leader when it comes to placing D&O insurance for companies going public, be it through an IPO, direct listing, or merger with a SPAC (a “de-SPAC” transaction). Experience matters in this arena....more
Sophisticated, experienced, and effective directors and officers rarely join a public company unless that company has a platform of protection that they deem adequate. The platform in this case relates to personal and...more
Until recently, it was an established practice for a SPAC team to buy a six-year tail insurance policy when it merged with its target. The tail costs were usually pre-negotiated years before—at the time of the SPAC’s IPO—when...more
As they go through their initial public offering (IPO) and the subsequent merger & acquisition (M&A) process, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) face many regulatory, legal, and business hurdles. Obtaining the...more
Possibly regretting the repercussions of its recent decision in Delman v. GigAcquisitions3, the Delaware Court of Chancery opted on February 21, 2023, to restore relative peace to dozens of SPACs for which the capital...more
Tumultuous, exasperating, difficult, nerve-wracking, and frustrating are all apt descriptions of the 2022 SPAC market. We’ve summarized some of its ups and downs in our year in review blog post from October and have touched...more
Over the past year, SPACs have been through market shifts, regulatory thrashing, economic issues, novel litigation theories, and SEC enforcement actions. I touched on all of these in my previous post, but for this month’s...more
It’s been a year since we launched the SPAC Notebook, our monthly column and podcast series, which helps our readers negotiate the risks and traps of the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) market. Below, we look at...more
For a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that has not completed a business combination but is approaching its deadline for finding a suitable target, two questions loom large: do we extend or liquidate?...more
Extend or liquidate? Those are the two options for a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that has not completed a business combination but is approaching its deadline for finding a suitable target. ...more
With all the current doom and gloom in SPACland, a ray of sunshine from an unlikely corner—D&O insurance carriers—is making our day a lot brighter. For over two years, we have been making the case that representations and...more
Plenty has changed since January 2022, when we last examined developing trends in the SPAC market. Since then, the macroeconomic environment shifted dramatically due to rising inflation, increasing interest rates, and the war...more
In this episode of “Don’t Take No for an Answer,” host Lynda A. Bennett is joined by Lowenstein Capital Markets & Securities partner Jared Kelly and Yelena Dunaevsky, Esq., Vice President, Transactional Insurance at Woodruff...more
SPAC lawsuits are increasing in frequency. There was a big jump in the number of SPAC-related cases from 2020 to 2021. Five new securities class actions were filed against SPACs in just the first two months of 2022. Several...more
SPACs are running into choppy water these days. Delaware Court of Chancery’s January 2022 opinion denying motions to dismiss in the MultiPlan Corp. litigation may be a significant source of concern for SPACs. Certainly, the...more
SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies) had a volatile year in 2021, raising more funds in the public market and doing more business combinations than ever before. After an extremely busy first quarter the pace of SPAC...more
There was no shortage of excitement and drama in the world of SPACs in 2021. The year started with IPOs of hundreds of SPACs in numbers that eclipsed everyone’s expectations. The exuberance in the SPAC market in the first...more
The last few months have been difficult for SPACs. IPO activity slowed to a crawl. PIPEs became difficult to secure. Investors’ appetites waned. Redemptions soared. As a result, many SPAC teams put their IPO plans on hold and...more