Far-left former NFL star Colin Kaepernick just watched a huge deal slip through his fingers after he refused to do TV interviews.
Kaepernick, who is more famous for protesting against America than playing football, lost the deal after he said he wouldn’t appear on television to promote the venture.
Kaepernick’s new company, Mission Advancement, is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
A SPAC is a company with no commercial operations that is formed only to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the sole purpose of acquiring or merging with an existing company.
These are also called “blank check companies” and have become increasingly popular on Wall Street.
Kaepernick’s SPAC went public and initially raised or received commitments of $345 million.
The goal was to buy a socially conscious company to fit with Colin’s image.
They found the perfect company, The Change Co.
This company is a California lender focused on helping minority borrowers.
Kaepernick hit up his Hollywood friends and received big commitments from Tyler Perry, WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, music producer J. Cole, rappers Quavo and Nas, and some real-estate investment firms Angelo Gordon and MFA Financial Inc.
The football star was also meant invest $10 million of his own money.
Everything looked good until Kaepernick’s threw a huge spanner in the works, however.
He said wouldn’t do a sit-down interview with Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos to promote the venture.
The people at The Change Co believed they were getting Kapernick’s shameless self-promotion and thought he would jump at the chance to sit for national interviews to promote this “woke” minority lender and the concept of financial freedom.
But they learned the hard way that Kaepernick would never sit for a real interview where he would be asked the hard questions.
Kaepernick needs to control the narrative so he sticks to media he can control.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Such an appearance would have been out of character for Mr. Kaepernick, who has never spoken about the issue in such a forum and has granted few interviews.
“Instead, he has cultivated his image through his social-justice initiatives and scripted appearances, most notably an advertising campaign with Nike Inc. and a six-part documentary about his childhood that ran on Netflix Inc. this fall.”
So the deal is off.
Colin Kaepernick’s SPAC was close to a deal to buy a minority-focused lender. It fell apart after he balked at stumping for it on TV, among other things. A cautionary tale for the celebrity hype movement w/ @andrewlbeaton https://t.co/JKeTjrB1e4
— Liz Hoffman (@lizrhoffman) December 24, 2021
WSJ: Colin Kaepernick SPAC deal collapses
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) December 24, 2021