- Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus, and Michael Thompson have launched a new special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Reinvent Technology Partners
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and hedge fund manager Michael Thompson (formerly of BHR Capital) have launched a new special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Reinvent Technology Partners. And earlier this week, the trio filed for a $600 million IPO.
The goal is to merge with a technology company in order to take it public without having to go the traditional route of going public.
Thompson is going to be the director, CEO, and CFO. And Hoffman and Pincus will be co-lead directors. The company is going to list on the NYSE with the symbol RTP.U.
Reinvent Technology Partners intends to raise $600 million for its first merger. And this capital will be kept in a blind trust until the management team decides which company to buy.
This year, SPACs have seen a lot of traction for taking companies public. Some of the companies that have gone public via SPACs include Virgin Galactic, Repay Holdings, DraftKings, and Nikola.
“Throughout our careers as entrepreneurs, investors, and directors, we have been students of why some tech companies sustain as market leaders. Often people view these companies from the outside in as perfect, uninterrupted growth stories that were almost pre-ordained. However, we realize that behind these mythical growth stories are many hard fought cycles of invention and reinvention. Invention is when a company builds a new product and achieves growth in an adjacent market, such as Amazon developing AWS. Reinvention is when a company has to adapt its core products and services to continue growing in an existing market, as Netflix did moving from DVDs to streaming,” said Reinvent Technology Partners in a filing via TechCrunch. “For many public tech companies — especially mid-cap sized — these cycles can prove challenging to navigate while maintaining investor alignment. We went through our own invention and reinvention cycles while public at Zynga and LinkedIn, and it wasn’t easy.”
