Further investigation has turned up an interesting fact in the interim: Even if the Better.com SPAC combination closes, the transaction has been all but neutered from a cash perspective. From the company’s pursuant SEC filing (emphasis TechCrunch):
In connection with the vote to approve the Extension Proposal, the holders of 25,751,449 Class A ordinary shares properly exercised their right to redeem their shares for cash at a redemption price of $10.2178 per share, for an aggregate redemption amount of approximately $263,123,592. As such, approximately 92.6% of the Class A ordinary shares were redeemed and approximately 7.4% of the Class A ordinary shares remain outstanding. After the satisfaction of such redemptions, the balance in Aurora’s trust account will be approximately $20,931,627.
Per the company’s original deal presentation, its tie-up Aurora Acquisition would provide around $278 million to the combined company, which the deck noted “assumes Sponsor backstop of 100% of the shares redeemed by existing AURC shareholders pre-closing.” As Better.com ran headfirst into a climate of higher interest rates and operational issues — its layoffs are now legendary for their callousness and blowback — it did manage to secure a portion of the other capital that was earmarked for the deal. That $750 million infusion, half of a planned $1.5 billion PIPE, or private investment into public equity, provided Better.com with a stronger balance sheet. That said, November 2021 is far in the past.
Better.com’s SPAC gets a lifeline but remains on life support by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch
