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Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, this is a primarily tech forum and a SPAC is a primarily business concept. It means a “special purpose acquistion compan
by taywrobel 4y ago
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, this is a primarily tech forum and a SPAC is a primarily business concept.
It means a “special purpose acquistion company”. It’s effectively a company set up for the express purpose of facilitating an acquistion or merger of companies, so that assets or IP ownership can be moved in an optimally tax or otherwise cost efficient way.
Many have argued they provide no value except for helping wealthy people retain their wealth, hence why you see a lot of folks here lacking sympathy in their collapse.
- robotresearcher 4y ago> Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, Likely because you'll get the answer from first Google hit quicker than typing the question in English. Edit: I don’t object to the question. Just stating my guess as to why the downvotes occurred.
- yreg 4y agoYet it is probably useful for many to have it here. We will see by the votes.
- kapildev 4y agoBut once one questions and another answers, the answer would be available right here on Hackernews. Hundreds of people would save time + comprehend better because the answers here would explain in a compact and comprehensive manner and that too from the perspective of a tech-savvy person.
- EGreg 4y agoIt’s sad that you’re being downvoted for saying that
- kapildev 4y agoInnocent question: how do I check whether I am being downvoted? Is this something you see only after you cross the 500 karma points? A quick Google search didn't return anything related.
- gumby 4y agoother commenters tell you or you can just see your comment text become grey rather than black.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoyou can google that too...
- s1artibartfast 4y agoThat said, there is value in deprioritizing basic and low effort questions. While these may be helpful for those who do not know, they get in the way of more productive conversation. Nobody should flag such a question, but it isn't particularly interesting or insightful.
- taywrobel 4y agoGod forbid we actually talk to people to learn something… Google will give you an expansion of the acronym and a generic business definition, sure. But I think it’s nice to be able to contextually tailor the response to the presumed audience of HN and the assumed expertise of the asker. I get that us engineers are obsessed with efficiency in information sharing, but I do like participating in actually being a human from time to time.
- quickthrower2 4y agoGoogle? How November
- highwaylights 4y agoThe other big reason they’ve become so popular lately is that they allow private companies to go public without an IPO (thus avoiding a lot of the disclosures that would otherwise be required). Public SPAC created with no business -> raises funding from investors (or marks) -> “acquires” private company -> SPAC renames to private company’s name -> private company is now public without IPO
- rodgerd 4y agoYeah, this is the key context: people have argued that they're essentially a way of capturing all the value of a "going public" event to a smaller audience than a traditional IPO.
- fijiaarone 4y agoYes, the special purpose is to avoid disclosure or regulation. It’s pseudo-legalized fraud.
- ElijahLynn 4y agoThank you, I had no idea and think many others didn't either.
- tomrod 4y agoSide question -- where can I learn this space? Until you defined it, I had seen SPAC a handful of times but never know what it was or how it is used.