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Comment by ok_dad | Hacker News Reader

The company I used to work for went public in a SPAC. Initially, the shares were worth about $35 or so. I sold immediately after my lockout period at about $26. The shares are worth below $9 now. I read in the documents for the SPAC "merger" the executives got a big bonus when the deal closed. I hope for my former associates' sake that the company doesn't go under.

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A bunch of my coworkers from a previous company went to a startup that did a SPAC IPO in October. Went from $12 to $1 since then. Seems like these all went down at literally the worst time possible lol

They "went down" at the correct and absolute best time to cash out before interest rates rise and these companies go belly up. It's about grift not about making the company work well.

Was this Babylon?

Yes

This makes me feel better about my $10 shares now being worth $4. Although I would never have joined this company in the first place if I knew they were going to IPO via SPAC last October.

Lazer huh? Not surprising. The CEO lied on his application to the thiel fellowship and sketch Russian investment money can only go so far. Parents were Florida real estate investors, so all the fawning press about self made child genius billionaire were eye-rollingly asinine. Iirc there was a major force reduction about a year before the SPAC.

Not sure what laser is sorry

LAZR

But I guess a lot of patterns hold.

Another clear example of how finance can be used to suck capital out of the public markets. Hey, we all need to take profits eventually, right?

Omg. I just realized SPACs are like the plot of The Producers.

Not really tho....most companies or high net worth people have most of their wealth in assets i.e. stocks, private companies, bonds...they will often just stay invested and watch the value of their assets go up. Only taking small profits here or there if they need the cash.

They're about to sink even further, stuck with a bunch of unsellable homes as interest rates are zooming up. Q2 will be a rough print. They're executing better than Zillow did, for certain, but it's still going to catch up with them.

That's why I treat all my (ex-)employer shares and RSUs as lottery tickets / monopoly money. For Amazon that worked out perfectly, for EADS a little less so but still very well. If I cannot live with my base salary, I'm not taking the job, as simple as that. If someone is giving me a potentially winning lottery ticket on top of a decent base pay, why would I refuse so?

That seems to be a pattern. VLTA recently had an executive shakeup that seems to stem from their overcompensation for closing a relatively mediocre spac offering.

Its sad as their business has surprisingly tremendous potential with good execution.

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