Ex-Uber Exec To File $250M SPAC IPO Backed By Former Google CEO

A former Uber executive is planning to launch a $250 million initial public offering (IPO) for a blank check company whose advisors include billionaire Eric Schmidt, an ex-Google CEO, IPO Edge reported.

Emil Michael filed an S-1 prospectus on Friday (Oct. 2) for DPCM Capital Inc., a special purpose acquisition company or SPAC, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A SPAC is a shell company established to help another company go public, after which a reverse merger happens with another company. The trend has grown in recent months.

Hims, a direct-to-consumer company selling health products targeted at millennials, is using a SPAC to go public, for example.

Josh Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, said the SPAC trend is not a flash in the pan. Harris said the SPAC is a necessary tool for companies looking to go public.

SPACs, he said, saw more money raised than regular IPOs in July and August, raising more than $30 billion so far this year. Harris said SPACs have gone from 3 percent to 20 percent of the market during the recent rush in cases.

“There’s a real need for quick, confidential capital and price certainty and for sponsorship in the markets,” he said. “And most of the SPACs that have been done have been more emerging growth SPACs, less cash flow more growth.”

Michael’s SPAC intends to buy a technology company, where Michael will serve as chairman and CEO, IPO Edge reported.

Michael served as chief business officer at the San Francisco-based ridesharing giant where he led the merger of Uber with Didi Chuxing Technology, a Beijing ridesharing company, according to the report. He also helped Uber raise money before the company went public last year.

Michael’s experience also includes a role as chief operating officer of Klout, an online personal influence measurement tool that was sold in 2014, the report stated. He was also a technology, media and telecommunications banker at Goldman Sachs.