A-ROD SWINGS FOR $500 MILLION IPO WITH NEW SPAC SLAM CORP.

BY BRENDAN COFFEY February 4, 2021 4:37pm

A-Rod is swinging for the fences. Alex Rodriguez has filed for a $500 million IPO through a special purpose acquisition company named Slam Corp. The retired baseball great is CEO of the SPAC, which intends “to focus on businesses in the sports, media, entertainment, health and wellness and consumer technology sectors, however, we do not intend to target professional sports franchises,” according to the prospectus filed this afternoon with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Joining Rodriguez in the venture are eight other executives, including Kelly Laferriere, a sports and media executive who has worked with A-Rod Corp., and at ESPN; Jagdeep Singh, the founder of QuantumScape, a high-profile publicly traded battery maker; Himanshu Gulati, the founder of Antara Capital and other of his executives. Reggie Hudlin, who has written the Black Panther comic and been involved as a writer, director and producer in numerous Hollywood projects, including Django Unchained, is among the directors. Marc Lore, former CEO of Walmart is a special advisor to the SPAC.

A-Rod, along with partner J-Lo, Jennifer Lopez, recently saw an investment in Hims & Hers Inc., pay off when a SPAC brought that business public. SPACs are blank check companies that raise money in an IPO with the intention of then acquiring an operating business. A-Rod’s effort is another of more than four dozen sports-related SPACs to enter the marketplace since DraftKings went public by SPAC last spring.

Slam will sell units for $10 each, consisting of one share and one-fourth of a warrant to buy an additional share at $11.50. Goldman Sachs and BTIG are the bookrunners, the banks that will market the offering to Wall Street.