Spacs tips

The investor mania for special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, in the past two years cooled mighty quick, with most travel companies going public through this process plummeting in value since their stock market debuts.

Sonder disclosed in a financial filing Friday that it received a Nasdaq notice that it is not complying with the stock exchange’s listing rules and faces a potential delisting because the company hasn’t filed its annual 10-K report for 2023.

Reverse stock splits are almost never a good sign and companies have a tough time recovering. They do it when their shares are in the basement and they’re at risk of a delisting.

Sonder announced Tuesday that it’s 1-for-20 reverse stock split would become legally effective after market close Wednesday, and that its shares would start trading on that basis Thursday morning.

Selina, a hotel and experiences brand focused on youth travelers, said on Wednesday that its financial metrics were trending in the right direction as it reported earnings results.

Property manager Sonder, which continued to tout itself as “a leading next-generation hospitality company that is redefining the guest experience through technology and design,” laid off 14 percent of its corporate workforce.

Sonder, the property management company that went public through a blank check merger, or SPAC, found someone to replace its outgoing chief financial officer with the help of 2.7 million stock options as an incentive.

T.J. Clark, property manager Vacasa’s new chief commercial officer, is in the proverbial hot seat, charged with reversing unacceptably high rates of homeowners leaving the platform, and increasing sales after the company laid off up to 300 sales and marketing staff and 1,000 field personnel in January.

Property manager Sonder, received a notice of delisting from Nasdaq because the company failed to satisfy the minimum bid price listing rule as its common stock traded below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days. 

Selina was one of about a dozen travel companies that went public last year by merging with blank check companies called special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Most have since been in the doldrums.

After receiving a notice from Nasdaq in April that its shares could be delisted because their price had dipped below $1 per share for 30 trading days in a row, Sonder announced it is asking shareholders to approve a reverse stock split.