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SPAC Mania’s Ugly End Yields $46 Billion of Investor Losses

  • At least 21 former SPAC merger targets went bankrupt in 2023
  • Failures span electric-vehicle makers, indoor farming firms

Lordstown stockholders accused sponsors behind its SPAC of overstating demand for its flagship Endurance truck.

Photographer: Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg

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Wall Street’s affair with blank-check firms, the finance fad that pushed companies onto the stock market during the Covid-19 pandemic, ended this year with a string of big bankruptcies and even bigger losses for shareholders.

At least 21 firms that went public by merging with special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, went bankrupt this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Measured from their peak market capitalizations, the insolvencies bookend the loss of more than $46 billion of total equity value.