Why Shares of CF Acquisition Corp. VI Are Rising Today

What happened

Shares of the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) CF Acquisition Corp. VI 
(CFVI 0.90%) traded more than 11% higher as of 1:54 p.m. ET today.

Investors are preparing to vote on whether or not to approve CF Acquisition's merger with the YouTube competitor Rumble. Additionally, the alternative video content platform recently added the controversial content creator and former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate.

So what

CF Acquisition Corp. VI is attempting to take Rumble public. Some believe Rumble has the potential to challenge mainstream social media platforms like YouTube that they believe unfairly censor content.

CF Acquisition is similar to the ascent of the SPAC Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), which is attempting to merge with and take public Truth Social, the alternative social media platform backed by former President Donald Trump.

Shares of DWAC soared from about $10 per share to more than $94 after DWAC announced its plan to merge with Truth Social. However, regulatory scrutiny that could put the merger at risk has brought shares back to around $26 as of this writing.

The vote to approve the merger between CF Acquisition and Rumble is slated for Sept. 15. If approved, Rumble can begin trading independently soon after.

The other big news is that the controversial content creator Andrew Tate, who had a massive following on several mainstream social media platforms, is now joining Rumble after being banned from many of those mainstream sites. Tate has become well known for his opinions on topics surrounding masculinity and comments on gender that many deem to be sexist.

Now what

The deal between CF Acquisition and Rumble values Rumble at a $2.2 billion enterprise value. CF Acquisition currently trades at a market cap of about $437 million and has amassed 44 million monthly average users, according to the company.

However, many post-SPAC stocks have fallen significantly after starting to trade independently, and Rumble in the first quarter of 2022 only made about $4 million of revenue and reported a loss of $3.9 million.

While the platform does have a huge number of users, I think the jury is also still out on the sustainability of these alternative social media platforms, and the valuation is still high, so I will personally be avoiding the stock for now.