UTA Offers $200 Million IPO to Create Gaming, Digital Media Company

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UTA Offers $200 Million IPO to Create Gaming, Digital Media Company
UTA’s Jeremy Zimmer gave up his 2020 salary

United Talent Agency has priced the initial public offering of its new special purpose acquisition company at $200 million with the goal of creating a new company focused on gaming, digital media and creator economy jobs.

Led by former Nintendo Co., Ltd. President Reggie Fils-Aimé, the SPAC, UTA Acquisition Corp., began its listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker “UTAAU” on Thursday, Dec. 2.

Fils-Aimé will serve as chairman alongside Co-Chief Executives Clinton Foy, a general partner of venture capital at UTA, and former Google executive Jamie Sharp. Ophir Lupu, UTA’s head of video games, will be president of the SPAC.

UTA Acquisition has assembled some significant names for the SPAC’s board, including former CBS Entertainment and Microsoft executive Nancy Tellem, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and Beachbody Company Chief Strategy Officer and former Legendary Entertainment exec Kathy Vrabeck.

According to the company’s S-1 filing with the SEC, it hopes to utilize the expertise of its sponsors, which include affiliates of UTA as well as financial advisory and merchant banking firm Connaught Ltd., to find a suitable merger partner.

“We intend to capitalize on the ability of our management team to identify, acquire and manage a business that can benefit from the unique operational, financial and investing acumen that members of our sponsor and management team have, particularly in gaming, but also across related areas within the broader digital media, creator economy, entertainment and technology landscape,” the S-1 filing reads.

Shares of the SPAC will be sold at $10 each, with 20 million planned for the IPO. That said, the breadth of options that the company is considering makes it less of a sure bet, even as it is shepherded by a leadership team whose members hold pedigrees in different industries. Among the risk factors detailed in the S-1 document, UTA Acquisition indicates that because it has not already chosen a “target business,” shareholders may not be entitled to protections that U.S. securities laws typically provide.

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Todd Gilchrist
Todd Gilchrist is a Los Angeles-based reporter and film critic with 20+ years of experience at dozens of print and online outlets, including Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly and Fangoria. An obsessive soundtrack collector, sneaker aficionado and member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Todd currently lives in Silverlake, California with his amazing wife Julie, two cats Beatrix and Biscuit, and several thousand books, vinyl records and Blu-rays.

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