Sagansky and Sloan's SPAC Spinning Eagle Acquisition withdraws $2.0 billion IPO

Spinning Eagle Acquisition, the eighth blank check company formed by SPAC veteran Jeff Sagansky and former MGM CEO Harry Sloan, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering on Wednesday. It had filed in June 2021 to raise $2.0 billion by offering 200 million units at $10, with each unit containing one share of common stock and one-fifth of a warrant.

The company was set to be led by CEO and Chairman Harry Sloan, who previously served as CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and CFO and President Eli Baker, who is a Partner at Eagle Equity Partners. SPAC veteran Jeff Sagansky was the company's founding investor and a member of the sponsor.

Spinning Eagle Acquisition had planned to target businesses in sectors that would benefit from management's experience, including media and entertainment. Additionally, the company sought to employ an unusual feature, where if it had chosen not to use all of the proceeds held in the trust account for its initial business combination, it would have had the ability to rightsize its trust account by allocating a portion to a new blank check company (SpinCo) and spinning it off as an independent, publicly-traded SPAC.

Management has been behind several SPACs, including most recently Screaming Eagle Acquisition (SCRMU; -1% from $10 offer price), which went public in January of this year; Soaring Eagle Acquisition, which combined with biology company Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA; -64%) in September 2021; Flying Eagle Acquisition, which combined with mobile esports platform Skillz (SKLZ; -70%) in December 2020; and Diamond Eagle Acquisition, which combined with SBTech and DraftKings (Nasdaq: DKNG; +91%) in April 2020.

The New York, NY-based company was founded in 2021 and had planned to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol SPNGU. Goldman Sachs was set to be the sole bookrunner on the deal.