The CEO who made one of Silicon Valley’s worst acquisitions wants a $400 million blank check

  • 📰 MarketWatch
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 66 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 30%
  • Publisher: 97%

United States Headlines News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

Would you give this man $400 million?

The blank-check bonanza has already reached mind-boggling heights, but now we seem to have jumped the shark.

While it would be foolhardy to hand a CEO with such a horrific acquisition on his résumé a blank check to have another try, the SPAC bonanza on Wall Street has grown so huge that anything is believable. After a raft of blank-check acquisitions made huge waves with the Robinhood crowd — Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. SPCE, -5.63% , Nikola Corp. NKLA, +1.15% and DraftKings Inc. DKNG, +1.30% most prominent among them — there has been an unprecedented flood of filings.

SPACs in general are a different proposition for investors because they are investing in the people running them, with no information or financial data on an acquisition target until a deal is struck. Renaissance noted in a recent blog post for subscribers that most SPACs fail to live up to the hype — the return so far this year is a bit over 4%, Kennedy said in an email, despite the wild gains for a few outliers.

As H-P was getting close to completing its bid for Autonomy, Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak expressed concerns about the hefty price. Apotheker pushed forward, though, with H-P eventually buying a company that it has since accused of misrepresenting its financial performance by slipping hardware sales onto its balance sheet while selling itself as a “pure-play” software company.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

TheArtOfBreakingTheDeal

I wish someone will give me $400 million!

VCs out here hungry for tech plays, they will probably give him more than the $400m he seeks.

Leo has plenty of help from a compliant & acquiescent board that went on to destroy a lot more value after he left. This is only half the HP story. Misleading at best.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 3. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Amid power outages, CEO of generator maker anticipates 'massive change' coming to the grid'You're going to see a lot more decentralized, on-site power generation' in the next decade, Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld said as hurricane season hits the U.S. Maybe if one of those infrastructure weeks were serious, the grid might be on the road to being in better shape.
Source: CNBC - 🏆 12. / 72 Read more »

Aramco CEO sees oil demand picking up as lockdowns easeSaudi Aramco's Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Sunday that he sees oil demand recovering in Asia as economies gradually open up after the easing of coronavirus lockdowns. You wish! Really? My friend is heading us to the second wave of this terrible pandemic!
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »

Rippling, Founded By Fallen Tech CEO Parker Conrad, Passes $1 Billion Valuation With $145 Million FundraiseThe latest tech unicorn: HR software startup Rippling, founded by Parker Conrad, who previously rose and fell with Zenefits. Forbes previously wrote about Conrad's efforts at redemption with Rippling as part of our Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. amyfeldman 14 days ago, the Jordanian Teachers Syndicate Council has been detained in prisons without being allowed bailing Save our union, rescue Jordanian teachers from prisons. مع_المعلم_مع_النقابة save_Jordanian_teachers amyfeldman Taking the “human” right out of HR
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »

Nokia's new CEO working on setting strategy in 'dream job'Nokia's new chief executive Pekka Lundmark said he will take time to re-acquaint himself with the Finnish telecom equipment maker as he works toward setting a strategy, as the company jostles for position in the highly political 5G race. GG Elon Good luck to him. He couldn't do much worse than Stephen Elop. Is this Nokia the original Nokia?
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »

When the CEO Can’t Get on a Plane, Deputies Step UpWith plane-hopping chief executives grounded by the coronavirus pandemic, deputies in local offices are playing bigger roles in everything from strategy to hiring. how do you get authority - you take it.. hi How do I start a business?
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »

The CEO Of Kids Clothing Company Hanna Andersson Has Resigned After Diversity Complaints From StaffMike Edwards' resignation comes after BuzzFeed News reported on concerns among staff about diversity problems at the popular children's clothing company. Do better Hanna Andersson 😡
Source: BuzzFeed - 🏆 730. / 51 Read more »