Wattles out to raise $230 million to invest
By David Milstead, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published December 25, 2007 at 12:05 a.m.
Mark Wattles, the man who bought Thornton-based Ultimate Electronics out of bankruptcy, hopes to raise up to $230 million in a "blank-check" company to then go out and buy a business.
Wattles Acquisition Corp. has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an offering of up to 23 million units, each of which will hold a share of stock and a warrant to buy another. Wattles Acquisition proposes to sell them for $10 apiece.
The filing says Wattles Acquisition will "focus on identifying a prospective target business in the consumer products and retail industry, but will not be limited to . . . that industry."
This is the same model used by Denver energy legend Cort Dietler, who is chairman of National Energy Resources Acquisition Co., which filed Dec. 12 to go public.
Wattles, founder of Hollywood Entertainment, began buying Ultimate Electronics stock before it filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In April 2005, Wattles purchased 32 Ultimate Electronics stores for about $47 million.
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