Have SPACs been cleaned up?

GREAT FLOODSSPACSPAC are supposed to wash away the world’s ills. Facing a divine deluge, Noah built an ark in which to escape. In “Metamorphoses” Ovid, a Roman poet, describes how Jove, king of the gods, unleashes a flood to wipe out a degenerate humanity: “now seas and Earth were in confusion, lost; a world of waters, and without a coast.”Whether a flood has wiped out the unworthy is a critical question for investors in special purpose acquisition companies (s). These are blank-cheque vehicles that raise capital through initial public offerings, after which their sponsors hunt for private firms to take public via mergers. Although s have been around for decades, they were once niche affairs. Their structure was costly for investors, and companies mostly avoided them.