Mario Gabelli forming New SPAC: Focus Includes Entertainment, Media And Telecom
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
The craze over SPACs or "blank check" acquisition firms has died down quite a bit from the past few years, when several new ones were launched. We've covered a few of them in the media space, though they haven't become major market forces. Mario Gabelli, longtime head of Gamco Investors, is launching a new one, per an S-1 filed this morning.The Gabelli Entertainment & Telecommunications Acquisition Corp. is looking to raise $200 million for, as the name would suggest, acquisitions in the media, entertainment and telecommunications industries, as well as financial services. It hopes to sell 20,000,00 at $10 each. The filing looks fairly standard for a deal such as this: The company has 24 months to find an acquisition, and ultimately there's no guarantee that it will. Gabelli will be the company's chairman, though its CEO will be Frederic V. Salerno, who last served as CFO of Verizon (NYSE: VZ), before retiring in 2002. He also sits on the board of Akamai (NSDQ: AKAM), CBS (NYSE: CBS) Broadcasting and Viacom (NYSE: VIA), as well as a couple of other non-media firms.
As for Gabelli, we've discussed his media holdings a number of times, having been a key investor in such firms as Media General (NYSE: MEG), Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) (where he opposed the Dolans take private initiative) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), where he figured prominently during the Icahn vs. Parsons battle.
By Joseph Weisenthal