How do you know when a trend such as the growth of special purpose acquisition companies has hit critical mass? When everyone and their grandmother is in on the action. Well, it seems the SPAC trend is near that point as actor and producer Ashton Kutcher is joining the William Morris Agency Inc.'s blank-check firm Performance Acquisition Co., a SPAC seeking $500 million through an IPO on the American Stock Exchange.
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Kutcher, who's credits include "That '70s Show," "Punk'd" and "Beauty & the Geek," is just one of the 10 people involved in the fund. As a matter of fact, Eric Watson, the SPAC's chairman, and Jonathan Ledecky, its president, are veterans with other SPACs, most noteably Endeavour Acquisition, which purchased American Apparel last year. Additionally, Ledecky has a long resume as a rollup artist, building US Office Products Co. and U.S.A. Floral Products Inc.; he was also a bidder for the Washington Nationals.
While Kutcher and most of the other directors are media executives, the firm has enlisted another dealmaker, Edward Mathias, a managing director at the Carlyle Group, as a director. Also, William Morris executive vice president of corporate development and new ventures John Mass is a director who will represent the talent agency's interests.
The SEC filing explains how the talent agency and Mass will be involved in the dealmaking process:
William Morris and Mr. Mass have entered into right of first review agreements with us, in which they have agreed to present to us for our consideration any suitable business opportunity to acquire a target business with a fair market value in excess of $375 million, prior to presentation to any other entity, provided such target business allows them to present their company to us. In any event, neither William Morris nor Mr. Mass will seek to acquire such target business or be a principal in such opportunity. In addition, if a client of William Morris has already identified a specific acquisition in which it seeks the assistance of William Morris, William Morris will not be obligated to present such opportunity to us.
If Performance can't find a deal at the end of its 24-month time frame, it could always acquire Kutcher's production company, Katalyst Film & Television. - Matthew Wurtzel
See Performance's SEC filing
See story from paidContent
See story about American Apparel acquisition from TheDeal.com
See story about Ledecky's Nationals bid from TheDeal.com
See story about U.S.A. Floral from TheDeal.com
See story about US Office from TheDeal.com
See more stories about SPACs from Dealscape
Comments
Kutcher's gotta be one of the more savvy actors in Hollywood, for more reasons that one...