The general tradeoff here is: An IPO is a difficult, involved process. You jump through a lot of hoops, you have to write a bunch of documents, you do a road s

The general tradeoff here is: An IPO is a difficult, involved process. You jump through a lot of hoops, you have to write a bunch of documents, you do a road show, and at the end of it you don't even know how much money you're going to raise. As with WeWork, it's very possible the IPO may be derailed before it gets to the end, or the price will be cut in order to get it done (meaning you don't raise what you expected). Plus, the price may drop after the IPO (meaning many of your new investors are mad and you get bad press), or it pops a bunch after the IPO (meaning many of your old investors are mad and you get bad press). It's not a great process! On the other hand, you'll probably get something a bit like a market price - as you note, IPO prices tend to be within 15-20% of the eventual market price. A SPAC is different. You talk to one guy (or team, at any rate), you negotiate a deal for a fixed price, you sign, it's done. Sure, it's very, very expensive, because you're paying to get rid of that risk, but maybe you really hate risk? (Note: the 20% fee is only one part of the cost of the SPAC. And there's still a chance of a pop, as with Nikola who surged enormously. Much of the money they raised was at $10 per share, but they closed at $33.97 on the first day, and $53.95 a month later. Good deal for some...but not for Nikola or their original investors.)