Summary List Placement
One of Wall Street's most talked-about trends is the wave of special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that have launched IPOs at such a torrid pace that they're on track to raise more than triple last year's totals. One-hundred and twelve SPACs, aka "blank-check firms," have raised more than $40 billion so far this year — compared to 59 last year that raised less than $14 billion — according to the website SPAC Research. There are now 183 shell companies with $57 billion to spend on bringing other companies public, the data provider said.