He and his partner at Slam Corp, hedge fund manager Himanshu Gulati, want to acquire a company in the sports, media, or health and wellness industries – but not a sports team, he said. (Mr. Rodriguez was also an investor in telehealth company Hims and Hers, which went public in a SPAC deal and valued the company at $ 1.6 billion last year.)
Rich Kleiman, manager and corporate advisor to Kevin Durant, the all-star striker for the Brooklyn Nets, said an athlete on an advisory board of a SPAC could help get a meeting with a company. Mr. Durant, he said, had been approached about such an agreement but decided against it because he would have little control over the direction of the company.
While Mr. Durant, who, together with Mr. Kleiman, runs a growing media and investment company, Thirty Five Ventures, puts up applicants, other athletes assert themselves independently.
Forest Road, an investment firm, was the entry point for Mr. O’Neal, who was already an investor there, when he contacted its managing director Zachary Tarica to get involved in his growing SPAC business. Mr. O’Neal was an advisor on his first SPAC, which last month announced plans to purchase Beachbody, a digital fitness company, valued at $ 2.9 billion. He is now an advisor to a second Forest SPAC.
Kevin Mayer, a former executive director of Walt Disney and TikTok who advised the first SPAC and heads the second, described Mr. O’Neal as a “real businessman” despite cautioning against investing in a particular company just because it is a famous one Person was involved.
“If anyone asked me, there is no way you should invest in this SPAC because there is a sports star or individual,” he said. “You should look at the entirety of the investment.”
Securities regulators have taken note of the celebrity endorsement trend, which has also attracted non-athletes from Sammy Hagar to Jay-Z. The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an investor warning on March 10, warning retail investors not to buy shares in a SPAC just because of some bold names attached to it.
