Shaq-Advised Beachbody Goes Public In $2.9B Deal

Subscription-based fitness platform Beachbody is going public.

On Friday, Beachbody and at-home connected cycling provider Myx closed their merger with blank-check company Forest Road Acquisition.

The combined entity, The Beachbody Company Group, is valued at $2.9 billion and began trading publicly on Monday.

Carl Daikeler, the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Beachbody, owns a 43% stake in the company and is now worth $1.7 billion, according to Forbes.

“We’d like to consider ourselves the Disney+ of Fitness because [our] content has this substance that’s not ephemeral,” Daikeler said.

Together, Beachbody and Myx recorded a combined revenue of $243.3 million from their 2.6 million users in Q1, up 43% from the year prior, per the Los Angeles Business Journal.

• Forest Road Acquisition raised $300 million in an IPO in November 2020 and will add another $225 million for the merger in a private placement with institutional investors.
• The SPAC is led by three former Disney executives and includes Shaquille O’Neal and Martin Luther King III as advisors.
• Openfit, also owned by Beachbody, acquired nutrition company Ladder in December. Ladder was founded by LeBron James and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Beachbody expects more than $1 billion in 2021 revenue, a notable jump from last year’s $880 million.