Forbes scrapping plans to go public

Forbes has decided to call off a deal to go public through a special-purpose acquisition company, also known as a SPAC, amid cooling investor appetite, reports Lauren Hirsch and Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times.

Hirsh and Mullin report, “The cancellation could be announced as early as this week, one of the people said.

“The deal, announced in August, would have taken the company public at a $630 million valuation through a merger with Magnum Opus Acquisition, a SPAC based in Hong Kong. In February, Forbes said it had agreed to a $200 million investment from Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, as part of the deal.

“SPACs, also known as blank-check firms, are publicly traded shell companies that raise money with the express purpose of taking a private firm public. Investor enthusiasm around blank-check companies peaked early last year but deflated after a number of SPACs failed to live up to their promises to investors.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.