Digital entertainment SPAC Ascendant Digital Acquisition files for a $300 million IPO

Ascendant Digital Acquisition, a blank check company targeting an interactive digital entertainment business, filed on Thursday with the SEC to raise up to $300 million in an initial public offering.

The New York, NY-based company plans to raise $300 million by offering 30 million units at $10. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one-half of a warrant, exercisable at $11.50. Three unnamed institutional investors intend to purchase $89 million worth of units in the offering (30% of the deal). The company may raise an additional $250 million at the closing of an acquisition pursuant to a forward purchase agreement with Japanese game developer Nexon (TSE: 3659). At the proposed deal size, Ascendant Digital Acquisition would command a market value of $375 million.

The company is led by CEO and Director Mark Gerhard, the co-founder, CEO, and CTO of AI tech and gaming studio Disruptional (fka Playfusion); COO and Director Riaan Hodgson, the CFO and COO of Beauty Labs International; and President and Director David Gomberg, the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Disruptional. The company plans to target the "Attention Economy," which it defines as the various converging sectors within interactive entertainment, film and television, music, print and digital books, e-sports, live events, and other forms of consumer entertainment and enabling services and technologies.

Ascendant Digital Acquisition was founded in 2020 and plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol ACND.U. It filed confidentially on March 13, 2020. UBS Investment Bank is the sole bookrunner on the deal.