Why the trillion-dollar markets touted by SPAC startups don t always add up yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
The booming SPAC market has been spooked by the acting SEC director s recent hints that new rules could be on the way.
The financial forecasts used by companies going public through SPACs could come under scrutiny.
A close look at the so-called Total Addressable Market estimates used by companies involved in SPACs shows why caution is advised.
Last week John Coates, the Harvard academic who is acting director of the Securities and Exchange Commission s division of corporate finance, caused a kerfuffle in the world of SPACs.
In a highly readable (really!) treatise on blank-check companies, as special-purpose acquisition companies are also known, Coates issued a warning to the investment bankers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, part-time board members, and other charlatans exploiting the trend. Plenty could go wrong, he said, when those who raise