Islanders’ Ledecky Files for Two More SPACs in Push for $600 Million in IPOs
New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky filed for two more special purpose acquisition companies Thursday–Northern Star Investment Corp. III and IV, each seeking a $300 million initial public offering.
“We expect to target data driven companies,” the prospectuses for the two SPACs said, “including those producing infrastructure and software that support such targets’ ability to function with zero friction for their consumers.”
As the names imply, there have already been two Northern Star SPACs. The first has a pending deal to merge with BarkBox, a pet goods subscription service. The second Northern Star completed a $350 upsized IPO 10 days ago. In all four Northern Star blank checks, Ledecky has teamed with Joanna Coles, who is best known for leading content efforts at Hearst, a diversified media business with more than $11 billion in annual sales. She left Hearst after being passed over for the publisher’s top spot in 2018. While there, Coles gained widespread notice for moving women’s magazine Cosmopolitan into more substantive editorial topics, including women’s issues and politics, while she was its editor. Coles is CEO and chair of both the newly filed SPACs. Ledecky in president and chief operating officer for each.
Notable people involved in the new SPACs include National Football League chief people officer Dasha Smith. She’s on the board of directors of Northern Star III. Smith has held the human resources responsibility for the league since late 2019. She previously was at Time Inc. and Sony Music, among other companies.
Ledecky also has another pending SPAC, Pivotal Investment III, which has filed to raise $200 million to hunt for a business in technology, franchises or media among other sectors. Based on disclosures in the most recently filed prospectuses, Ledecky has previously participated in eight SPACs.
More from Sportico.com
