Signa Sports United Goes Public in $3.2B Merger

Major bike and tennis equipment seller Signa Sports United is going public to speed up its plans for industry domination.

The SPAC merger values Signa at $3.2 billion and will raise $645 million from the SPAC itself and private investors.

“There are not so many online sports retailers that are public at the moment. So, that gives us a good tool to foster and to accelerate possible acquisitions,” Signa CEO Stephan Zoll told FOS.

The SPAC, Yucaipa Acquisition Corporation, is led by Pittsburgh Penguins part-owner Ronald Burkle. Burkle was the lead investor behind an effort to bring an MLS team to Sacramento before pulling out during the pandemic.

The company also announced the acquisition of online cycling store Wiggle, which has annual sales of around $500 million.

Zoll said part of the motivation to go public via SPAC instead of IPO is that SPAC mergers allow for these sorts of concurrent acquisitions.

• Based in Berlin, Signa Sports earns around 10% of its revenue in the U.S., primarily from its acquisitions of Midwest Sports in February and Tennis Express in May.
• The company also has deals with the ATP to provide technology backing for its apps and online retail tied to Grand Slam tennis tournaments.

Zoll sees Signa as having a unique opportunity to define the “very fragmented” sports ecommerce market.

“We are the largest and pretty much the only real consolidater at this point in time. We think there is a great, great opportunity to continue that and start shaping the entire ecosystem,” he said.