Blue Nile, the net jewellery retailer based 23 years in the past in Seattle, goes public — once more.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based firm introduced Friday that it’s merging with Mudrick Capital Acquisition Company II in a SPAC deal that values Blue Nile at $683 million.
It’s the newest chapter in an extended historical past for Blue Nile, an e-commerce pioneer co-founded in 1999 by entrepreneur and investor Mark Vadon. It went public in 2004 however was taken non-public by Bain Capital and Bow Road in a $500 million deal 5 years in the past.
Blue Nile sells greater than 650,000 merchandise and has served greater than 2.7 million prospects so far. It ships to 44 international locations and in addition has a rising brick-and-mortar presence, with plans to open 40 showrooms by the tip of 2023.
The mixed firm might be named Blue Nile and might be led by Blue Nile CEO Sean Kell, a former Expedia exec and CEO at A Place for Mother who took the CEO reins at Blue Nile in 2019. He changed Jason Goldberger, who joined in 2017 and is now CEO at Greenback Shave Membership.
The SPAC merger, which is able to generate $450 million in capital earlier than bills, is predicted to shut by the tip of this yr.
Often known as clean test firms, SPACs re-emerged in an enormous manner throughout the pandemic as capital flowed to newly fashioned entities and entrepreneurs used the monetary devices to extra shortly enter the general public markets.
However the efficiency of post-merger SPACs has steadily dropped, significantly since January amid the bigger market downturn, and extra offers are getting spiked. CNBC earlier this yr known as the SPAC market oversaturated.
Vadon, who additionally co-founded Zulily and was chairman of Chewy, is a part of his personal SPAC known as Huge Sky Progress Companions.