SPAC Led By Michael Mahan, Allen Shapiro & John Howard Goes Public With Ciara, Peter Guber & Mark Shapiro As Board Members

A high-profile SPAC with Hollywood ties, Bright Lights Acquisition Corp, has been priced and will begin trading on Nasdaq tomorrow, Jan. 7. The blank-check company is run by former Dick Clark Prods. CEO Mike Mahan, who serves as CEO, as well as co-chairmen of the board of directors Allen Shapiro and John Howard, and Chief Financial Officer Hahn Lee. The company’s board of directors also including singer-songwriter Ciara Wilson, Mandalay Entertainment Group chairman and CEO Peter Guber, Endeavor president Mark Shapiro and Selena Kalvaria, chief advertising and marketing officer at baggage maker Away.

Bright Lights Acquisition, which has priced its initial public offering of 20,000,000 units at $10.00 per unit, plans to acquire and take public a company in the consumer products, media, entertainment or sports space valued at $500 million to $1.5 billion, which is ready to scale up and go public.

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Once the company is identified, Bright Lights would bring in a well known celebrity who would be a good fit for that company. Through the partnership, the celebrity, who will receive ownership, would be able to monetize their influence and social media prowess in helping the company’s marketing efforts.

In the company’s IPO filing last month, Bright Lights Acquisition pointed to such celebrity partnerships as Ryan Reynolds and Aviation American Gin, Oprah Winfrey and Weight Watchers, Dr Dre and Beats as well as Shaquille O’Neal and Papa John as a model they are looking to emulate.

Entertainment industry veteran Allen Shapiro, a frequent Mahan collaborator, and longtime investor Howard, who had invested in Reynolds’ Aviation, last fall launched Celebrands, a company looking to create, acquire and grow consumer facing brands with celebrity owners and partners.

SPAC, which provides an alternative route to going public than the conventional IPO, has become a hotly pursued model, with some 200 new ones launched in 2020, a number of them in the media sector. Most recently, Thrillist, PopSugar parent group Nine Media launched a SPAC two weeks ago to pursue digital deals.

 

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