CEO and venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya announced that his latest SPAC, Social Capital for Your Wife Holdings (IPOW), has acquired the collective wives of a majority of FinTwit members. Members were made aware of the acquisition through a twitter image of a shirtless Palihapitiya with the caption “You’re Welcome”
Many FinTwit members were both surprised and elated upon hearing the news. Twitter user @Buysfallingknives commented that the acquisition took one of his worst performing assets off his balance sheet and replaced it with equity in Palihapitiya’s business portfolio.
“Once she saw the image it was like magic, she disappeared,” @buysfallingknives said. “Selling off an investment you once believed in is always difficult, but Chamath really made this one easy.”
Palihapitiya has not yet expressed what he intends to do with the collection of wives, and his responses to the tweet have indicated that he may not have been fully on-board prior to the close of the acquisition.
Monetization could be difficult given today’s regulatory environment. Some hope that the newly minted Biden Administration may open up new opportunities in the space, but no action has been taken so far. Nevertheless, recent sky-high valuations of past-their-prime assets such as GameStop, Blackberry, and Nokia have encouraged many venture capital firms to look for opportunities to squeeze out one last ride. It is possible that Palihapitiya has a target market in mind that few investors can discern.
“With the EV boom moving into maturity, a lot of investors are now asking ‘what’s next?’” said Stanford Professor of Economics Jared Jacobs. “It’s possible that this is just the beginning of the next hot market.”
