Hedge fund titan Bill Ackman on Wednesday raised $4 billion in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. But it wasn’t for a company, or even for the firm that controls his hedge funds. It was for something called a SPAC, and it was the largest SPAC IPO of all time.
Axios Re:Cap digs into Wall Street's latest craze with Ackman, who was ahead of his time in 2012 when he used a SPAC to bring Burger King public.
Many school districts are still debating to what extent they might go virtual this year, but some families are taking their children’s education into their own hands. Neighbors are banding together to form schooling "pods" with private instructors as a way to secure child care and make sure their kids don't fall behind in school. However, this trend could deepen the educational divide along racial and class lines.
Unlike in other parts of the United States, Los Angeles isn’t debating whether to send students back into physical classrooms. The city's schools have already decided to be fully remote through at least the end of 2020.
Axios Re:Cap digs in with Austin Beutner, LA Unified School District superintendent, about why he made the decision, getting technology to students, contact tracing and what he thinks about President Trump's funding cut threat.
Editor’s note: This episode was updated to clarify that the Los Angeles Unified School District is starting the school year remotely and will return to classrooms as soon as possible.
The U.K. and China made big news with promising results in vaccine development for the coronavirus — the US, Russia and at least five other countries are also working on possible vaccines.
Why it matters: For a vaccine to work effectively, these countries should be working together. Instead, they're clashing. Countries like the US and Canada have even accused Russia of stealing our vaccine research.
