Shutterfly in negotiations to disclose SPAC merger

Any agreement can take weeks, some people said, and there is no guarantee that the parties will reach an agreement. If they do, it will add Shutterfly to the long list of companies participating in a recent business explosion involving SPACs, which raise money on a public offering with plans to find one or more companies to merge later.

The Altimar vehicle went public in February, raising $ 345 million for a deal, which, as is typical, would likely include additional funds raised privately. A previous vehicle, Altimar Acquisition Corp., agreed last year to combine two investment firms and make them public in a $ 12.5 billion deal that at the time was one of the largest transactions with blank checks.

Founded in 1999, the eponymous brand of Shutterfly helps consumers to print their photos on personalized books and gift items. The company owns Lifetouch, which does school photography and operates portrait studios and also has a digital printing arm for companies. It went public in 2006. Apollo bought the company in 2019 for about $ 2.6 billion, including debt, and then combined it with Snapfish LLC to create a larger player in online photo services.

Before the leveraged purchase of Shutterfly, his outlook had faded as online photo services became ubiquitous and competitors with extensive resources, including Google Photos, stole market share. But the demand for photographic souvenirs has increased since the pandemic arrived about a year ago, and has left people nostalgic for past trips and special occasions, such as weddings and graduations. Shutterfly’s revenue growth, which was practically stable when Apollo bought it, is now in the double digits, one person said.

Potentially adding to the public listing appeal for Shutterfly and its sponsors, shares in e-commerce companies such as pet food retailer Chewy Inc.

and Etsy craft market Inc.

performed well during the pandemic. Moonpig Group PLC, the UK’s equivalent of Shutterfly, went public last month.

SPACs have been a godsend for private equity firms, offering a simplified alternative to an initial public offering for companies in their portfolio. A steady stream of private equity firms has agreed to go public through SPAC mergers since the blank check frenzy has engulfed Wall Street in the past two years. Carlyle Group Inc.

is eyeing a deal with SPAC for Syniverse Technologies LLC that could change the fortunes of a decade’s investment, people familiar with the matter said earlier this week.

Write to Cara Lombardo at [email protected] and Miriam Gottfried at [email protected]