IonQ Rumored to Go Public via a Merger with a SPAC

Bloomberg has published an article indicated that IonQ is in talks to merge with a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC) corporation called DMY Technology Group Inc. III. A SPAC is sometimes known as a "blank check company" is a company formed with no commercial operations or physical assets with a goal to acquire other companies. These companies will go public based and then acquire private companies to form their operations. For the investors and employees of the private companies, this can have an advantage since the shares they own will be able to be publicly traded without the private company going through an Initial Public Offering. DMY Technology Group Inc. III made its public offering in November 2020 with a valuation of $275 million. The Bloomberg article states that the SPAC is expected to raise an additional $300 million through a sale of equity known as a PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity). The article further states that the combines entity after the merger might have a valuation of $2 billion so this would imply a valuation of the IonQ portion at over $1 billion. Of course, like many deals the parameters can change drastically and the deal itself might never happen. So it will be interesting to see how this works out and whether there could be any further activity involving IPOs or SPAC mergers in the quantum space in the near future.

February 23, 2021