With Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) exploding in growth and professional intrigue, the School of Business offered a financial conference to explore the business model, its advantages, and challenges.
Some 275 people participated in the UConn SPAC Conference, believed to be the first university-sponsored conference of its kind in the nation.Continue Reading
The UConn School of Business will host a half-day conference on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), which are seeing a dramatic spike in interest in the financial and investment communities this year.
“This is the topic of the year in the financial markets,” said Professor Yiming Qian, the Toscano Family Chair in Finance at UConn. “SPAC is not new, but was not popular until last year. Before 2020, the annual numbers of SPAC IPOs were in one or two digits. In 2020, however, the number jumped to 248 (compared to 165 traditional IPOs). The number for 2021 already exceeded 500.” Continue Reading
The Gazette – Whoever buys the business likely will not have to physically take over the asset before the merger closes, so long as the two parties have a purchase agreement in place, said Yiming Qian, finance professor at the University of Connecticut, who has researched divestitures made during horizontal mergers.
UConn Today – Multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway bought CEO Warren Buffett’s struggling hometown newspaper. Amazon acquired Whole Foods, which is headquartered in the same state where CEO Jeff Bezos grew up and owns a home.
New research shows these deals aren’t coincidences. Companies are 2.5 times more likely to acquire firms headquartered in the state where their CEO grew up than similar firms located elsewhere, the study found.
Those unfamiliar with the finance discipline sometimes underestimate the tremendous good that analysts and investors bring to the world, said Yiming Qian, who has just joined the faculty as a full professor and holds the new position of Toscano Family Chair in Finance.Continue Reading
The School of Business is welcoming 10 new faculty members this fall, including Yiming Qian, a full professor, who will chair the new Toscano Family Chair in Finance. Continue Reading