He and his partner at Slam Corp, hedge fund manager Himanshu Gulati, are looking to acquire a business in the sports, media or health and wellness sector – but not a sports team, he said. (Mr. Rodriguez was also an investor in the telehealth company Hims and Hers, which went public in a SPAC transaction that valued the company at $ 1.6 billion last year.)
Rich Kleiman, manager and business advisor to Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets’ All-Star striker, said that having an athlete on an SPAC advisory board can help you get a meeting with a company. Durant, he said, was approached about such an agreement, but decided against it because he would have little control over the direction of the company.
While Durant, who with Kleiman runs a media and growth investment company, Thirty Five Ventures, has chosen suitors, other athletes are looking on their own.
Forest Road, an investment firm, was the entry point for O’Neal, who was already a local investor when he contacted his chief executive, Zachary Tarica, about getting involved in his growing SPAC businesses. O’Neal was a consultant at his first SPAC, which last month announced plans to buy Beachbody, a digital fitness company, for a valuation of $ 2.9 billion. He is now an advisor on a second Forest SPAC.
Kevin Mayer, a former Walt Disney and TikTok executive who advised the first SPAC and is helping to lead the second, described O’Neal as “a real entrepreneur”, although he warned against investing in a specific venture just because a person famously was involved.
“If anyone asks me, I say that you should definitely not invest in this SPAC because there is a sports star or any single person,” he said. “They should look at the entire investment.”
Securities regulators noted the trend of celebrity endorsement, which 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 an SPAC simply because some bold names are associated with it.