The initial public offering project of Barça Media, which was supposed to be realized at the end of last year with a capital of 915 million according to the expectations of the Barcelona Board of Directors. John LaPorta, he had just narrowly avoided his final end. The regulatory body, Nasdaq New York, the technology complex where it was expected to become the “mother of all levers,” as the confused always imagined it. Xavier Sala Martingranting him a final extension until November 9 before proceeding with the liquidation of the special purpose acquisition company with which Barcelona has concluded an exit agreement.
At the moment, the prospects of reviving this “dead” are really slim, because its development remains tied to the matrix derived from the sale of the Barcelona studios, and it is still waiting for its own capitalization to contribute to Barça Vision, the brand created by Barça Media to host and rest of the business in the field of audiovisual and technologies New digital.
As much as Laporta and his team tried to hide and obfuscate the concepts and institutional conspiracy based on constant internal transfers, because the original sale (July 2022) was made through Bridgeburg Invest SL, a company owned by Barça Produccions, which in turn was operated and marketed by Barça Studios, it was soon discovered Monitoring and guarantee mechanisms in the Nasdaq Stock Exchange: Lack of a strong financial structure. He was not trusted, unlike the Barcelona auditor himself, Grant Northon, who bought the neglected copy from the entire board according to the official report: “On August 11, 2023, the partners who acquired it obtained a sale agreement with two.” New partners of 29.47% of the stake they own in this company, amounting to €120 million, while retaining the rest of their stake, thus not changing their affiliate status. Likewise, as a result of the sale, the subsidiary Barça Produccions, SL raised an amount of EUR 20 million during August 2023, which was recorded on June 30, 2023 under accounts receivable for the sale of shares. After agreeing to amend the billing calendar due dates between the club and one of the new partners, for the purpose of fulfilling its obligations, it is expected that during the last quarter of 2023, payment will be activated from the remaining amount of 40 million euros. In this sense, at the date of preparing these consolidated annual accounts, it is negotiating with several investors about different options to obtain the necessary financing, because in addition to the capital increase that was implemented in the amount of 20 million euros, it is awaiting registration by the new partner, and assumes obligations. Contracted with the company. According to these, as well as according to the classification of the purchasing company and the guarantees given by this member to the club, no doubts were considered as to its recoverability, as well as its reasonable value.”
As can be seen, there is not a single reference to the real buyers, Llibero and Nipa Capital, which, on the contrary, were mentioned in the official statement of August 11, 2023, and were almost triumphant about the resale of the Barcelona studios after the “first failed attempt”. The previous year.
If nothing else, the failure wrapped in lies of the first deal, which did not oblige Orphes Media and Socios.com to pay 60 million of the first period, nor the rest as Laporta assured the partners in the association, should have been “withdrawn”. It was Great Norton's interest in recognizing such a vague concept as a promise that prompted potential investors — who were not named because they had not actually signed a firm agreement — to keep looking for financing. Not only that, Great Northon also recognized accounting income worth 51% of the company, $208 million, to offset ordinary losses of significant significance at the end of fiscal year 2002-23, a house of financial cards that collapsed last January 31 when it admitted The same board of directors stated that the $40 million for Libero had not been received.
Nasdaq has read the signals correctly, seen the alarm and smelled the iron from miles away at the risk of leaving an operation in the hands of someone like Laporta worth many millions and with a prominent media background. Although the trick of trying to cover up the shortfall in the same company with splashy news of an impending IPO fooled the local, Catalan and Spanish press, capital and experts, not to mention investor compliance services, did not swallow the hook.
Mountain & Co was forced to abort and inform its investors about the incident and the real degree of uncertainty, which led to the flight of investors and the decision of the regulatory body to give it until last March 9 to resume the exit from Spac, already in the name of Barça Visió, the label that brings together Barça Media and the rest of the audiovisual properties. For FC Barcelona.
A Spac is an empty container registered on the Nasdaq that has previously raised the necessary capital from a series of investors committed to the project finally chosen by its promoter, in this case Mountain & Co with its business headquarters in the Cayman Islands, charging the haven tax as a favour. When FC Barcelona and Mountain & Co. hastily pressed the start button, it seemed like only a matter of weeks to turn Barcelona's media outlets into an unstoppable revenue stream, the Nasdaq bomb of the year, making FC Barcelona the first club in the world able to monetize its audio products. And visual. The “promising” area and business of NFTs, web 3.0 and the Metaverse in a bold and fascinating stock market operation. Laporta sold the world another one of these stories that never materialized at the time of truth because the gravity and supposed consistency of the Barcelona media were merely smoke and media tools.
Now the Nasdaq has given him a more serious ultimatum, setting the deadline for reshuffling his portfolio of investors before proceeding with the liquidation of the company until November 9th. According to some specialized media, the situation experienced as a result of the lack of control and the bad image presented by the Laporta administration, prompted investors to accelerate their departure and save their contribution with the exception of those who, due to the regulations and special design of special purpose companies, are not entitled to recover their investments. Some of them, like Utz Klaassen, the former owner of Mallorca, had no other choice but to increase the size of their shares by swapping debt for equity.
It is not known, at least not yet, whether there will be sanctions against Barcelona for trying to move on the stock market without capitalizing one hundred percent of the company that was supposed to give life to Spac de Mountain & Co, now seriously. They are in danger of disappearing and going down in history due to their financial scandal and unprecedented reputation.
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