SPAC Share of U.S. IPOs

## What this measures

SPAC IPOs divided by SPAC plus operating-company IPOs in the quarter, as a percent.

## Why it matters

When blank-check shells are a large share of new listings, the IPO market is running on sponsor money and promised future deals rather than companies with businesses to show.

## How to read it

A high share flags a speculative market. Quarters with few IPOs swing widely; each point carries the two counts in its metadata.

## What it does not say

It counts listings, not dollars: a $100 million SPAC and a $2 billion operating IPO each count once. Funds and asset-backed issuers are in neither count.

## How it's built

An IPO here follows the rule of Palanor's U.S. IPO count (ipo.us.count.quarterly): the first final prospectus (Form 424B4 or 424B1) of a company that had filed no annual or quarterly report before it, leaving out funds, asset-backed issuers, multi-registrant debt filings and companies with no sign of a U.S. exchange listing. SPACs are identified by SIC code 6770, a blank-check name at filing, or a later 8-K reporting the end of shell status confirmed by a unit listing. The share uses SPAC and operating-company IPOs dated by final prospectus; quarters with no IPOs have no value. The quarter in progress is left out until it ends.

## Source

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR full and daily form indexes (sec.gov/Archives/edgar), company filing histories (data.sec.gov submissions) and EDGAR's bulk submissions file. Public domain: "Information presented on sec.gov is considered public information and may be copied or further distributed by users of the web site without the SEC's permission" (SEC website dissemination policy, sec.gov/about/privacy-information).