Shibasish Sarkar’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), International Media Acquisition Corp. (IMAC), will acquire Reliance Entertainment Studios and Risee Entertainment. A filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 22 shows that the deal for the two companies is for a total of $102 million in cash and $38 million in investment, spread over four tranches.
IMAC, set up before the COVID-19 lockdown, raised more than $200 million through an IPO on the NASDAQ Exchange in 2021. It was backed by a number of industry heavyweights.
SPACs, often described as ‘blank check companies’, are popular vehicles for raising speculative finance and allowing privately-owned companies and start-ups to obtain share listings. Without a track record of their own, and without meaningful business operations, SPACs rely on the financial muscle of their bankers and the reputations of their founders to pull off their first moves.
