Every startup wants to grow and succeed, and traditionally that would take one of two routes. Either showing enough potential to be acquired by a larger firm that will run it independently or integrate it with its other business units, thereby giving the startup’s shareholders a windfall and giving the startup’s products the chance for broad market exposure. Or, the startup does it themselves, growing in size and potential until it decides it can “go public” through an initial public offering (IPO). Recently, however, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have emerged as a third option and are growing in popularity in the smart building industry. “A SPAC is an alternative to a conventional initial public offering (IPO) in which an investor group takes a shell company public through its own IPO and then uses the proceeds from the IPO to acquire a private company, which now becomes the new publicly traded company,” explains Michael Holman […]