Hi, I'm Dan Pramak and welcome to Axios Recap.

Today's Wednesday, July 22nd.

Profits are up at America's largest hospital chain.

China's Houston consulate has been told to shut down,

and we're focused on Wall Street's hottest trend.

Earlier today, hedge fund Titan Bill Ackman raised $4 billion in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

But it wasn't for a company, or even for the firm that controls his hedge funds.

It was for something called a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

And it was the largest SPAC IPO of all time.

Spacks have been around for a while. They used to be called blank check acquisition companies.

In short, they're empty shells, no underlying product or revenue. The idea is that a money

manager like ACMEN creates one, raises money through an IPO,

and then uses that money to buy an actual company.

Now, why would anyone want to be bought by a SPAC?

Namely, because it's a de facto way to go public, without all of the disclosure, timing,

and financial hassles of a traditional IPO.

Ackman himself did this nine years ago, eventually purchasing Burger King, but Spacks have

mostly been small business until the past year, when they've simply exploded on Wall

Street, raising tens of billions of dollars and buying up such well-known companies as

Draft Kings, Virgin Galactic, and Multi-Plan. Plus electric carmaker Fisker, which we discussed on the pod a couple weeks back.

Why it matters is that SPACs have a very mixed track record, and there is some concern,

not unfounded, that their prevalence right now is a canary in the stock market bubble coal mine.

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