Kevin Durant Launches New SPAC for $200 Million
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Executive Brief: Kevin Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman are launching a new SPAC named Infinite that will focus on acquiring companies across the sports, health, e-commerce, cryptocurrency, and food sectors, similar to those made by his current venture capital firm Thirty Five Ventures. Below, I run through some of Durant’s investment highlights, his on-court earnings and a brief run-through explaining SPACs. Enjoy!
Kevin Durant Launches New SPAC for $200 million
Hey Team,
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NBA Superstar Kevin Durant and his business partner Rich Kleiman are at it again. This week, the duo launched a new special purposes acquisition company (SPAC), which has filed for a $200 million USD initial public offering (IPO). SPACs, also known as ‘blank check companies’ are investment vehicles, or shell companies, that use the pool of capital (money) raised through an initial public offering to merge with an existing private company and take it public.
New York Post
Their company, Infinite Acquisition Corp (Infinite) is offering 20 million units at $10 apiece. Infinite is also offering to redeem 100% of the shares for cash if it does not close a merger within 18 months after the close of the IPO. Typically, SPACs have up to 24 months to locate a company to take public. The capital raised is placed in an escrow account for the period until the SPAC formalizes its initial public offering. Once a deal is identified, it’s presented to investors for their approval. Investors can exit if they don’t approve the proposal by Infinite. However, if a deal is secured, investors can obtain ‘stock warrants – options’ to buy shares of the new company purchased at a future date.
The sole underwriter for the offering is Credit Suisse, and the shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NFNT.U”. Investment and merchant bank LionTree is also a sponsor of the SPAC. The filing comes amid a cooling-off period in the SPAC market as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission due to tightening of accounting requirements and regulatory scrutiny of SPACS. This cool down comes after over $100 billion in SPAC deals occurred in 2021.
NBC Sports
For reference, the sports betting company, DraftKings, used a SPAC to go public in 2020.
Durant and Kleiman’s entrance into the SPAC market comes after other celebrities have invested in their own similar ventures including NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, tennis legend Serena Williams, rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, former MLB-er and new part-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves Alex Rodriguez, and fellow NBA superstar Steph Curry.
Like most of Durant’s other investments, Infinite will focus on buying companies across the sports, health, ecommerce, cryptocurrency, and food sectors. Durant and Kleiman will serve as co-CEOs of Infinite. The duo has already had significant success with their investment company Thirty Five Ventures which was launched in 2016 to build venture capital and make investments.
According to Crunchbase, Durant, via Thirty Five Ventures, has already made 43 investments, two of which Thirty Five Ventures was the lead investor. Last month, Durant joined another IPO for secondary-ticket service SeatGeek which entered a business combination agreement valued at $1.35 billion with RedBall Acquisition Corp. Durant is also an investor in MLS soccer team Philadelphia Union, banking app Goalsetter, and also recently invested in the surging sports media company Overtime. Without listing all 43, other interesting investments by Durant include the peer-to-peer marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) OpenSea, one-stop-shop for all things women’s sports Just Women’s Sports (JSW), and New York’s esports organization Andbox Durant has also recently partnered with Dapper Labs’ to promote NBA Top Shot, the NFT platform. Finally, beyond the investments made by Thirty Five Ventures, Durant and Kleiman are also in the early years of building their sports business media company The Boardroom which covers athletes, collectables, crypto, sneakers, and more.
NBA Top Shot x Boardroom
Over his NBA career, Durant has made over $300 million. At 33, Durant recently signed a new 4-year contract extension worth $194.2 million with the Brooklyn Nets, expiring in 2026. The final year of the contract pays Durant $53 million for one year. With Durant’s style of game, many expect him to continue playing past that. Though, if his business ventures materialize as they have recently, he might not need to anymore. To anyone who knows Durant, though, that won’t matter to him. If there’s anything he loves more than business, it’s basketball.
NBA.com
Thank you for reading. Have a great day, and we’ll talk on Monday.
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Kendal