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The Daily Dish (2/2/21)

Welcome to the Daily Dish. Every morning in your inbox subscribers receive some Dishes that we find interesting and we think that you should know more about.

We’ll try to lob ‘em up to you in a simple, clean format that you can read in 5 minutes before the market opens. (Trust me, we know what it’s like to wake up at 9:23am).

Here’s the first assist 👇

Rocket startup Astra to go public through $2.1 billion blank-check deal

Astra, a startup that makes small rockets to send satellites into orbit, is going public at a valuation of $2.1 billion through a deal with blank-check company Holicity Inc, the companies said on Tuesday. Astra manufactures its own rockets, which are designed to carry small orbital payloads, at a facility in Alameda, California. Thus far, it has then shipped its launch vehicles to Kodiak, Alaska for flight – requiring just a handful of people on the ground at the actual spaceport to mount and launch the rocket, with the majority of the team overseeing the flight operating remotely out of a mission control facility back in California.
The terms of the deal will result in an anticipated $500 million in cash for Astra, from a combined $300 million held by Holicity in trust and a $300 million injection via a PIPE (private investment in public equity) from funds under management by BlackRock. The arrangement sets a pro forma enterprise valuation of Astra at around $2.1 billion – that valuation of the company minus the $500 million in cash the SPAC merger brings in. Astra expects it to complete by the second quarter of this year, after which the company will trade under the ticker ‘ASTR.’
With its successful test in December, Astra achieved a pay-off of years of quiet work building and iterating its launch model. The startup was originally pursuing a DARPA-funded competition to achieve rapid response launch capabilities, but that contest expired with the prize unclaimed. Ultimately, Astra aims to be launching payloads on a daily cadency by 2025, and in a blog post accompanying the SPAC news, Astra founder and CEO Chris Kemp said that it’s also intent on “building a platform of space services” that implies ambitions beyond its work today on rockets.

United Wholesale Mortgage returns to Super Bowl

United Wholesale Mortgage, now a publicly traded company, will return to the Super Bowl this year.

The wholesale lender will be running a new Super Bowl commercial spotlighting independent mortgage brokers and its website FindAMortgageBroker.com for a second straight year.

<ul><li><p>United Wholesale Mortgage, now the second-largest mortgage lender in America, made its Super Bowl debut last year. It <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2020/01/31/pontiacs-united-shore-roughs-up-detroits-rocket-mortgage-super-bowl-ad/2858164001/">wasn’t exactly subtle</a> in taking a shot at its chief rival, <strong>Rocket Mortgage</strong>. The ad opened with a line about how playing with rockets is fun when you’re a kid, but less so when you’re an adult. Afterward, it touted the benefits of using a mortgage broker.</p><p>For its part, Rocket, easily the biggest mortgage lender in the country, will have another big presence at the Super Bowl this year, though it’s been somewhat cryptic about its plans. The lender noted last week that it had just launched a searchable nationwide database of mortgage brokers on its highly-trafficked website, and even alluded to it in the context of an NFL game. </p></li><li><p>“We will always find ways to elevate and shine a light on independent mortgage brokers, and what better way to do this than during the Super Bowl where millions of Americans are tuned in to watch the game and the commercials,” said Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, in a statement. “Brokers are the best place for borrowers to get a faster, easier and cheaper mortgage. These men and women are pillars in the community and provide consumers with more options than a retail lender or bank so they can fulfill their dream of home ownership.”</p></li></ul> <h1><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-01/mgm-backed-playstudios-to-go-public-via-1-1-billion-spac-deal">MGM-Backed Playstudios Agrees to $1.1 Billion SPAC Deal</a></h1> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/029bb66f-8e0d-4c05-86b1-d51f27281895_2560x1338.jpeg" alt="Playstudios increases IAP by in-housing RTB - Kayzen" /></figure> <ul><li><p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/1087343D:US" title="Company Overview">Playstudios Inc.</a>, an online game operator backed by casino giant <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/MGM:US" title="Company Overview">MGM Resorts International</a>, is going public via a $1.1 billion merger with a special purpose acquisition company.</p><p>The Las Vegas-based business, which offers free-to-play online blackjack and slot-machine games, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/terminal/QNVD3OMEQTXC" title="PLAYSTUDIOS to Become the First Publicly Listed Mobile Games Company Offering Players Real-World Rewards">said</a> Monday it’s combining with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/ACAC:US" title="Company Overview">Acies Acquisition Corp.</a>, a shell company founded last year. Acies’s chairman is Jim Murren, former chief executive officer of MGM. Bloomberg News <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-27/mgm-resorts-backed-playstudios-is-said-to-discuss-spac-deal" title="MGM Resorts-Backed Playstudios Is Said to Discuss SPAC Deal (1)">reported</a> on talks between the parties last week.</p></li><li><p>Playstudios’ founder and CEO, Andrew Pascal, will continue in that role with the new company. Playstudios shareholders will receive $150 million in cash and own about 64% of the shares of the new entity.</p><p>Institutional investors are putting $250 million into the business. Those investors include <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BLK:US" title="Company Overview">BlackRock Inc.</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/1031231Z:US" title="Company Overview">Neuberger Berman</a> Funds and MGM Resorts, which offers perks like free rooms to Playstudios players to build loyalty. MGM will own about 10% after its additional investment.</p></li><li><p>As with most social online games, customers can opt to purchase an in-game currency to continue playing and reach higher levels. Playstudios’ twist is that they simultaneous earn points in the company’s own loyalty program, which can be traded in for real-world prizes like tickets to shows or discounted meals. In an interview, Pascal, 55, said he’ll use the money raised through offering to grow the business. “We’ll now have the currency and capital to go acquire other companies and games,” he said.</p></li></ul> <p>Here’s the last assist 👇</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LaMelo not afraid of making big plays in OT! (via <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBA</a>) <a href="https://t.co/3iBtilpSE3">pic.twitter.com/3iBtilpSE3</a></p>— SLAM (@SLAMonline) <a href="https://twitter.com/SLAMonline/status/1356438762595753985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> </div></figure> <h4><strong>If you enjoyed today’s dish please gift it to a friend (or Elon) 👇</strong></h4> <h3><strong>There’s No I In Trade</strong></h3> <p>My goal is to create a community where people can educate themselves through the world of investing. I can’t do that alone, we need to build this community together. So tell me what you’re loving, tell me what you want to see more of tomorrow.</p> <h6>Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and should not be interpreted as such. I am not a financial advisor. I may currently own or have owned many of the SPACs mentioned above – but that does not mean I am invested now. My investing method is highly risky swing trading which means I am constantly in and out of positions. Please do your own research or hit up the #SPACsquad on Twitter to learn more about SPACs.</h6>