Adam Torres and Donna Ackerly discuss SPACs.
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Show Notes:
In this episode, Adam Torres and Donna Ackerly, Founder and CEO at Lioness Consulting LLC, explore the current state of the SPAC market.
About Donna Ackerly
Donna Ackerly founded Lioness Consulting LLC in 2023. She is a corporate governance professional with decades of experience of successful leadership and subject matter expertise on proxy solicitations involving annual and special meetings, proxy contests, SPACs and corporate actions conducted via tender or exchange offers. Donna is a trusted advisor to a diverse range of clients, from newly public to well-established corporations across various market capitalizations.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today’s guest is Donna Ackerley, and she is founder and CEO over at Lioness Consulting LLC.
Donna, welcome to the show. Thank you, Adam. Delighted to be here. All right, Donna. So, excited to talk to you today. I mean, , you’re going to be a speaker over at the SPAC conference that’s coming up with that. I know Charlie and the guys over at DealFlow are throwing.
So, I guess, first off you excited? I’m excited for this event. I can’t go to this particular one, but I know I’ve been interviewing some of the speakers. Are you excited? I’m excited. I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to attend again. This is this will be my 4th conference with deal flow like this 1, you said again, so you’ve have you been to a SPAC conference previously, or yes, I have. So this will be my 4th conference 4th consecutive conference with deal flow, but I did also attend the micro cap conference this past January with the same group and you’re going to correct me if I’m wrong on this.
Donna. So you’re going to be a speaker. Am I right? That’s correct. Thank you. what’s going to be, we don’t want to spoil it. We’re not going to tell the audience everything right, but not to spoil everything. But what are some of the themes and some of the things that you’ll be presenting the panel that I’m speaking on is about activism.
So, it’s a shareholder activism within the special purpose acquisition companies. Activism. Oh, that’s interesting. Hold on. Is that a, that combination is that a known word? I don’t, it’s not a known word, actually. Shareholder activism is very prevalent in the corporate world. But not so much with effective facts.
So it’s an exciting topic. And I think many people will certainly learn a lot from the conversation that we’ll have. Yeah, I know that that the activist conference just kind of happened a while ago. Right? I interviewed a couple of people that were in the activist conference.
So liking this melding of minds here. It will be fun indeed. let’s get a little bit further into just some of your specialties and maybe how you got into this. So, what warmed you up to initially getting into this field of SPAC? Like, did you begin? Well, I’m a seasoned veteran in the proxy industry.
. My niche had always been working with publicly traded companies and helping them navigate the challenges of getting the shareholder vote for their annual meetings or special meetings for that matter. And annual meetings typically consist of the election of directors, ratification of auditors, and oftentimes executive compensation matters.
However, with facts, it’s a little bit different. 1st goal is to really complete the business combination with a private company. So it’s a reverse merger, but there’s also extension votes along the way, which means they need to extend the life of the back to allow more time to complete the business combination. when did you figure that this would be like one of your specialties? Like you said, you mentioned when you didn’t pet, when did you say, okay, this is probably going to be like something that’s going to take up a bit of your time? when did that come about? 2021.
Although there were back many years ago, and there were a series of transactions. So I dabbled in it back then. But then I saw the need to help companies in 2021, as I said, to help them to navigate the challenges of getting the shareholder vote. like, do you do that?
Like, what are some of the challenges for those that are listening that aren’t maybe like, completely in tune with the industry? Like, what are some of the challenges that are normally you’re helping them overcome? 1 of the major challenges is getting the vote within a very short period of time.
there are a lot of things that need to be done. So, with understanding 1st of all, the needs of the particular back number 2 is what the deadline is for them to complete the shoulder vote. If, in fact, it is an extension vote. And normally those are, they can find you very quickly.
So it could be 6 weeks from the time that you start until you have to finish. And that includes working very closely with counsel outside counsel law firms, help them navigate the various things that need to be done. So, in fact, I’m getting ready to launch two more right now. So busy, busy. Yes, very much.
So thank you. give us a feel for the overall SPAC market in general, cause I know this was you know, go back. Couple of years. I mean, this is all you’d see in the newspaper. This is all like there was, I don’t know, I think Forbes, like all these different companies, everybody was trying to do something like give us a little bit of an ovary cause I don’t, I don’t live it day to day on what’s going on in the SPAC market, just in general.
So were set up by raising capital from a series of investors to ultimately take a private company public in the form of a reverse merger and many of these SPACs have some incredible targets, whether it be technology, health care, health care. And other types of industries that really appeal to them to to bring a company public.
And the specs are really set up to accelerate. these types of mergers, reverse mergers and the activity right now, like, would you say it’s heavy? Is it kind of like, what do you see? Well, it was very heavy a few years ago, and then it’s decided a little bit because there were some, lack of better way of putting it, but wrenches run into the equation to slow things down, whether it was SEC or accounting firms. And then also the SPACs themselves, because of the decline in their stock price.
Those shareholders were not really willing to support the particular measures that these SPACs were seeking. I remember seeing this like pretty heavily in the news a bit ago, and then now it kind of subsided. So I was curious about that one. so when you go to this conference, I’m always curious about this piece, especially with like industry professionals like yourself, like, what are some of the things you go for?
Obviously, you’re on the panel, but what are some of the other benefits of attending conferences like this, like that you find? It’s really to meet the executives of the SPACs and to understand. what’s on the horizon, what their goals and objectives are and to ultimately help them to gain the shareholder response that they need to go to the next step, whether it’s the extension vote, or ultimately the business combination merger. well, Donna I just have to say thank you for making some, time for us today. I know that you got a lot going on getting ready for the conference and everything else. But I do want to give you the opportunity as well to leave any contact information, websites, or otherwise, if somebody’s listening to this, and I know we’re going to do a bunch of distribution to some of the people that are attending the conference as well.
So if somebody’s listening to this and they want to follow up and they want to learn more about Lioness Consulting LLC, how do they do that? They can email me the accurately a CK, E, R, L, Y at line consulting dot com or call me at 609. 651. 2267 Linus consulting also has a website which is W. W. W.
dot Linus consulting LLC dot com. And there is an info email address info at Linus consulting LLC dot com. Amazing. just for everybody listening to this, we’re going to include all that information in the show notes and you’re welcome. Just click on the links, head right on over, check out the website.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters this is a daily show. So each and every day we’re bringing you new content. Just be sure to hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss anything that’s coming up. And Donna, again, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Thank you, Adam. Appreciate it.