Apple Retail Creator’s Startup Enjoy to Go Public Via SPAC
(Bloomberg) -- Enjoy Technology Inc., a startup that operates mobile retail stores focused on selling and helping users set up technology products, is going public through a merger with blank-check company Marquee Raine Acquisition Corp.
The merger with the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, will give Enjoy an enterprise value of $1.2 billion and about $450 million in growth capital, with $80 million of that coming from private investors. Enjoy, started by former Apple Inc. executive Ron Johnson, announced the deal with Marquee on Wednesday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report on the talks.
Enjoy said it’s aiming to complete the deal in the third quarter with shares of the combined company trading on Nasdaq under the symbol ENJY.
Enjoy operates in more than 85 cities in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., delivering products for several wireless companies and Apple products in some cities. It has partnerships with carriers AT&T Inc., BT Group Plc and Rogers Communications Inc. and what it says is proprietary technology that powers its commerce and distribution system.
Johnson, known in the technology world as the co-creator of Apple Inc.’s retail arm, founded Enjoy in 2014. Johnson left Apple in 2011 after almost 12 years to become chief executive officer of J.C. Penney Co.
‘Near-Term’ Profitability
“We have near-term, clear sight to profitability, and if I didn’t feel confident on our path to profitability, I wouldn’t go public now,” Johnson said in an interview. “We have great confidence in our ability to forecast the business today so that we can be a public company.”
He added that he appreciates the accountability of being a public firm.
Johnson said the capital raised by the merger will strengthen the company’s balance sheet so it can deliver greater volumes of new products from its partners. He also said company will eventually expand to include new partners and locations.
The company said it’s aiming for $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025. Its valuation in the Marquee Raine deal is almost five times its projected fiscal 2022 revenues of $245 million. The company is projecting $110 million in revenue for fiscal 2021, and profitability by fiscal 2023, Johnson said.
Cubs Owner
Marquee Raine, backed by Raine Group, raised about $374 million in a December initial public offering. The SPAC is led by co-chairmen Tom Ricketts, owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, and Raine Group partner Brett Varsov.
(Updates with announcement in second paragraph.)
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