Longtime dealmaker Tom Hicks (pictured at left) has filed to raise $400 million from the public market to launch a special purpose acquisition corporation, or SPAC, basically a blank-check shell company used to acquire a business.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday, the SPAC, known as Hicks Acquisition Co., said it planned to sell 40 million units at $10 each. SPACs have become wildly popular as of late — 100 have been created since 2003, according to Dealbook.
What's interesting is Hicks' timing. After all, he jumped into private equity first in 1984 forming Hicks & Haas doing deals on a case-by-case basis, before co-founding Hicks Muse Tate & Furst in 1989 and raising limited partnerships to invest in buyouts. He retired from Hicks Muse in 2004 and it has since been reformed as HM Capital.
While the filing offered scant details of what Hicks will acquire, perhaps a peak at Hicks Muse's biggest successes might shed light on his potential targets. Some of Hicks Muse's biggest successes were in media like radio broadcaster AMFM Inc., which was sold to Clear Channel Communications Inc. for $23.5 billion in 1999. Considering Hicks' long-time affiliation with media — after all, his father was a radio man — perhaps Hicks Acquisition will stick with what its founder knows best. —Matthew Wurtzel
See story from the Star-Telegram
See story from Dealbook
See SEC filing
See related story about AMFM sale from TheDeal.com
See related SPAC story from TheDeal.com
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