Media and entertainment-focused SPAC Ascendant Digital Acquisition III files for a $250 million IPO

Ascendant Digital Acquisition III, a blank check company targeting digital media and entertainment, filed on Monday with the SEC to raise up to $250 million in an initial public offering.

The New York, NY-based company plans to raise $250 million by offering 25 million units at $10. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one-third of a warrant, exercisable at $11.50. At the proposed deal size, Ascendant Digital would command a market vale of $313 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 III was founded in 2021 and plans to list on the NYSE, but has not selected a symbol yet (RC ticker: ASNDU.RC). Goldman Sachs is the sole bookrunner on the deal.