SPAC

abbreviation or noun

ˈspak 

plural SPACs

: special purpose acquisition company

Wall Street's biggest gold rush of recent years, SPACs are listed shell companies that raise funds to acquire a private company and take it public, allowing targets to sidestep the more onerous paperwork and regulatory checks faced by traditional initial public offerings.

—Katanga Johnson

Although special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) could potentially fill some of this capital-providing role, they tend to focus more on larger businesses.

—Will Rhind

Examples of SPAC in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Almost two dozen digital health companies went public through an initial public offering or special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that year, up from the previous record of eight in 2020. —Ashley Capoot, CNBC, 24 Dec. 2024

In December 2021, Rumble announced plans to go public via a SPAC merger at a $2.1 billion valuation (with the assistance of Howard Lutnick, CEO of brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald and now Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary). —Kyle Khan-Mullins, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2024

The company went public in May via a SPAC that was co-created by Altman and investor Michael Klein. —Katie Fehrenbacher, Axios, 18 Dec. 2024

View’s agreement to merge with the Cantor SPAC CF Finance Acquisition Corp. was announced in November 2020. —Christina Wilkie, CNBC, 12 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1993, in the meaning defined above