The Daily Dish (2/5/21)
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 👇
23andMe to merge with Virgin Group’s VG Acquisition Corp.
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23andMe, a leading consumer genetics and research company, and VG Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Virgin Group have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Upon completion of the transaction, estimated in the second calendar quarter of 2021, $VGAC will change its New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ticker symbol, and the combined company’s securities will trade under the ticker symbol “ME”.
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23andMe offers a personalised health and wellness experience and has built a premier genetic database to unlock insights including potential therapeutic treatments for disease. The transaction will provide the capital to fund additional investment in key growth initiatives across 23andMe’s consumer health and therapeutics businesses.
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The transaction will value the outstanding shares of capital stock of 23andMe at an aggregate enterprise value of approximately $3.5 billion. 23andMe CEO and Co-Founder Anne Wojcicki and Virgin Group’s Richard Branson are each investing $25 million into the $250 million PIPE and are joined by leading institutional investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Altimeter Capital, Casdin Capital and Foresite Capital. The pro forma cash balance of the combined company will exceed $900 million at closing. Current shareholders of 23andMe will own 81% of the combined company.
NFL, Skillz Launch Contest For Branded Mobile Multiplayer Games
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On the eve of the NFL’s biggest weekend, the league announced a partnership with newly public game-tools maker Skillz $SKLZ for a contest to develop a league-branded multiplayer mobile title.
“Mobile gaming continues to be an important platform to reach and engage new and existing fans,” said Rachel Hoagland, the NFL’s VP of Gaming & Esports in a release. “Our agreement with Skillz provides access to a trusted platform and a highly engaged player base, making Skillz an ideal partner long term.”
Contest winners will get the NFL brand attached to their title, which Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise said in an interview could be a potentially hugely valuable differentiator.
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Paradise said to estimate the potential value of the deal, the industry rule of thumb is that acquiring an “install,” or new customer, on iOS costs about $5 apiece in marketing and advertising. The NFL is one of a handful of the world’s most valuable sports leagues, with perhaps 500 million people familiar with the brand.
“Maybe 10 percent of (those people) will try out a game with (NFL) branding,” Paradise said.
To help encourage those installs, the winning game will run on Skillz’ tech platform, and receive marketing support from both the NFL and Skillz. The contest will launch in the second quarter of the year and likely will take around a year or so before a winner is crowned, Paradise said.
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Skillz hosted 2 billion mobile multiplayer tournaments in 2020, Paradise said. It provides game developers with professional advisers, server capacity, security, customer service, player matching, anti-fraud and -cheating tools and other services.
He also said the company is seeking deals similar to the NFL partnership with other “offline sports leagues.” About a year, it signed a deal with Bolero, which owns the Pro Bowlers Association.
Skillz went public in December through a reverse merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation spearheaded by SPAC veterans and former Hollywood executives Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan. The company’s shares hit a high today of $39.17 in early trading, roughly quadruple the company’s low after its market debut.
Fuel-Cell Truck Startup Hyzon Agrees to Merge With Decarbonization Plus SPAC
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Hyzon Motors Inc., a fuel cell truck startup, has agreed to go public via a merger with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp., according to people with knowledge of the matter. Decarbonization Plus, a vehicle sponsored by an affiliate of private equity firm Riverstone Holdings and led by Erik Anderson, raised about $226 million in an October initial public offering. It said at the time it wanted to find a target “whose principal effort is developing and advancing a platform that decarbonizes the most carbon-intensive sectors.”
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Hyzon was spun out of Singapore-based Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies Pte, which has been developing fuel cell technology for commercial applications for almost 20 years. The startup, which counts Total SE among its investors, makes hydrogen-powered big rigs, buses and coaches. Hyzon is headquartered at a former General Motors Co. facility in Honeoye Falls, New York. In July, it announced plans for a plant in the Netherlands as part of a joint venture with Holthausen Clean Technology BV. It also has unspecified manufacturing activities with an undisclosed partner in Shanghai, and operations in Australasia.
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Hyzon says it already has more than 400 commercial vehicles on the road using its fuel cell technology. It expects to deliver about 5,000 fuel cell-powered trucks and buses by 2023 and is targeting annual capacity of around 40,000 fuel cell-electric vehicles by 2025. In August, Hyzon inked a deal with Australian mining company Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. to build a fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses.
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