By Jennifer Ford
- Shaq serves as an advisor to The Beachbody Company that went public in a $2.9B offering
- The fitness Company expects to earn more than $1B in 2021 revenue
Four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal along with other partners successfully raised $250 million for their SPAC Forest Road Acquisition Corp. As we reported in October, the funds were specifically to make deals in the media and technology sectors. Now, those funds have a more permanent home, in a three-way merger among Forest Road, Myx Fitness, and Beachbody Company Group. Collectively now called The Beachbody Company (BODY +2.73%), is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, adding fuel to the already increasing interest in SPACs as a lower risk investment opportunity.
Why This Matters: The SPAC market is attractive to those who only want to dip their toes in the water by going public quickly without the same volatility and regulatory requirements that have been both praised and criticized as a “shortcut,” compared to the traditional IPO. The first quarter of 2021 produced a record 298 SPACs, raising $83 billion.
If Shaq were to explain the future of BODY, he would bet on his own success, famously giving himself the nickname “The Big IPO.”
“Put your money on me. Because when I go public, we all gonna make money,” he said. BODY is now a publicly traded company, so he may be onto something.
CEO and Co-Founder Carl Daikeler refers to The Beachbody Company as the “Disney+ of fitness.” The subscription-based fitness service offers 21 Day Fix, Insanity and P90X, a well rounded combination of nutrition and fitness. BODY expects to earn more than $1 billion in 2021 revenue.
Situational Awareness: With new accounting rules implemented, SPACs declined to 61 in Q2 of this year. Despite the mania surrounding this financial product, its market performance has trailed the S&P 500 by 15 percentage points, according to Reuters.
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About Jennifer: She is a former HBO Production Risk Executive, now spending her days as a Marketing Consultant for MOWE, nights podding about all the things, and her in-betweens blogging about the seriousness and silliness of life. Follow Jennifer on Twitter: @reneseford or Instagram: @oksoblog
