LIDAR startup Luminar is going public via ‘reverse merger’

Photo: Volvo Luminar, a Florida-based startup that makes LIDAR sensors and other components essential for autonomous driving technology, is the latest transportation company to go public via a “reverse merger” with a special acquisition company, or SPAC. The company announced Monday that it was merging with Gores Metropoulos, a so-called “blank check” company sponsored by an affiliate of The Gores Group, a global investment firm. As a result, Luminar will become a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ under the new ticker “LAZR.” The Gores Group has been called “the king of SPACs” for the number of reverse mergers it has pulled off. equity valuation of $3.4 billion The combined company will have an “implied pro forma enterprise value” of... Continue reading…