Wynn ends SPAC deal to take its online division public

Wynn Resorts on Friday called off a $3.2 billion deal with billionaire investor Bill Foley-backed blank-check firm to take the Las Vegas operator's online betting subsidiary public, Wynn Interactive, whose CEO has been promoted last week to replace Matt Maddox as CEO for the global company.

Wynn and the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) company Austerlitz Acquisition Corporation I did not give a reason for calling off the planned deal.

Craig Billings, CEO of Wynn Interactive and incoming CEO of Wynn Resorts, stated: “With our continued roll out of product features and planned new state launches, including New York, we remain excited about WynnBET’s future. As we discussed on the Wynn Resorts, Limited third quarter earnings conference call earlier this week, in light of elevated marketing and promotional spend in the sports betting industry, we are pivoting our user acquisition efforts to a more targeted ROI-focused strategy. In so doing, we expect the capital intensity of the business to decline meaningfully beginning in the first quarter of 2022. WynnBET’s best days lie ahead of us.”

Austerlitz went public in February, raising $690 million. SPACs typically have two years to hunt for a company to merge with.

The termination follows similar collapses in the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) space, as reported by Reuters. With tightening accounting guidance and closer scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, dealmaking in the SPAC market has slowed down from last year.