[highwaylights]

The other big reason they’ve become so popular lately is that they allow private companies to go public without an IPO (thus avoiding a lot of the disclosures that would otherwise be required).

Public SPAC created with no business -> raises funding from investors (or marks) -> “acquires” private company -> SPAC renames to private company’s name -> private company is now public without IPO

[fijiaarone]

Yes, the special purpose is to avoid disclosure or regulation. It’s pseudo-legalized fraud.

[rodgerd]

Yeah, this is the key context: people have argued that they're essentially a way of capturing all the value of a "going public" event to a smaller audience than a traditional IPO.