Description of Securities

EX-4.5 2 brhc10035657_ex4-5.htm EXHIBIT 4.5
Exhibit 4.5

PROOF ACQUISITION CORP I
DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES

The following description of securities is a summary of the material terms of the securities of PROOF Acquisition Corp I, a Delaware corporation (“we,” “us,” “our” or the “Company”). It is not intended to be a complete summary of the rights and preferences of the securities and is subject to and qualified by reference to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our amended and restated bylaws and the warrant agreement dated December 17, 2021, between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company (the “Warrant Agreement”), in each case incorporated by reference as exhibits to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 of which this Exhibit 4.5 is a part (the “Report”), and applicable Delaware law. We urge you to read our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our amended and restated bylaws and the Warrant Agreement in their entirety for a complete description of the rights and preferences of our securities.

Terms not otherwise defined herein shall have the meaning assigned to them in the Report.

Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, which has been adopted, we are authorized to issue 70,000,000 shares of Class A common stock, $0.0001 par value per share, 12,500,000 shares of Class B common stock, $0.0001 par value per share, and 1,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock, $0.0001 par value per share.

Units

Each unit consists of one share of Class A common stock and one-half of one warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one share of Class A common stock. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. The Class A common stock and warrants comprising the units began separate trading on January 21, 2022. Holders have the option to continue to hold units or separate their units into the component securities.

Additionally, the units will automatically separate into their component parts and will not be traded after completion of our initial business combination.

Common Stock

Class A common stock

 Holders of record of the Company’s Class A common stock are entitled to vote for each share held on all matters to be voted on by stockholders; provided that, prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our Class B common stock will have the right to elect all of our directors and remove members of the Board for any reason. These provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may only be amended if approved by a majority of at least 90% of all then outstanding shares of our common stock voting at a stockholder meeting. Holders of the Class A common stock and holders of the Class B common stock will vote together as a single class on all other matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders except as required by law or stock exchange rule. Unless specified in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or as required by applicable law or stock exchange rules, the affirmative vote of a majority of our shares of common stock that are voted is required to approve any such matter voted on by our stockholders.

Our stockholders are entitled to receive ratable dividends when, as and if declared by the board of directors out of funds legally available therefor.

We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares upon the consummation of our initial business combination at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account calculated as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account was initially $10.20 per public share, and such amount will be increased by $0.10 per public share for any three-month extension of our time to consummate our initial business combination. The per-share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting discounts and commissions we will pay to the underwriter. The redemption rights will include the requirement that a beneficial owner must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction.
 

If a stockholder vote is not required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirements and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other reasons, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, conduct the redemptions pursuant to the tender offer rules of the SEC, and file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to completing our initial business combination. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires these tender offer documents to contain substantially the same financial and other information about the initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under the SEC’s proxy rules. If, however, stockholder approval of the transaction is required by law or stock exchange rules, or we decide to obtain stockholder approval for business or other legal reasons, we will offer to redeem shares in conjunction with a proxy solicitation pursuant to the proxy rules and not pursuant to the tender offer rules. If we seek stockholder approval, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination. Unless otherwise required by applicable law or stock exchange rule, a quorum for a meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at the meeting. However, the participation of our initial stockholders, officers, directors, advisors or their affiliates in privately-negotiated transactions, if any, could result in the approval of our business combination even if a majority of our public stockholders vote, or indicate their intention to vote, against the business combination. For purposes of seeking approval of the majority of our outstanding shares of common stock voted, non-votes will have no effect on the approval of our business combination once a quorum is obtained. We will give not less than 10 days nor more than 60 days prior written notice of any meeting, if required, at which a vote shall be taken to approve our business combination.

If we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and we do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of the stockholder or any other person with whom the stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from redeeming its excess shares without our prior consent. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including excess shares) for or against our initial business combination. Our stockholders’ inability to redeem the excess shares will reduce their influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination, and the stockholders could suffer a material loss in their investment if they sell the excess shares on the open market. Additionally, the stockholders will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the excess shares if we complete the business combination. As a result, the stockholders will continue to hold that number of shares exceeding 15% and, in order to dispose of the shares would be required to sell their stock in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.

Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, if we have not completed our initial business combination within 18 months (or up to 24 months, if applicable) from the closing of our Public Offering, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but no more than ten business days thereafter subject to lawfully available funds therefor, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses, divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following the redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law.

In the event of a liquidation, dissolution, or winding up of the company after a business combination, our stockholders at such time will be entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining available for distribution to them after payment of liabilities and after provision is made for each class of stock, if any, having preference over the common stock. Our stockholders have no preemptive or other subscription rights. There are no sinking fund provisions applicable to the common stock, except that we will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their public shares for cash equal to their pro rata share of the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account upon the completion of our initial business combination, subject to the limitations described herein.
 

Class B common stock

There are 6,900,000 outstanding shares of Class B common stock. The shares of Class B common stock are identical to the shares of Class A common stock, and holders of Class B common stock have the same stockholder rights as public stockholders, except that (a) prior to our initial business combination, only holders of our Class B common stock have the right to vote on the election of directors and holders of a majority of our issued and outstanding shares of Class B common stock may remove a member of the Board for any reason, and (b) the Class B common stock are subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described in more detail below. In addition our sponsor, officers and directors have entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed (i) to waive their redemption rights with respect to any common stock held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination and a stockholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (A) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide holders of shares of Class A common stock the right to have their shares redeemed in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months (or up to 24 months, if applicable) from the closing of our Public Offering or (B) with respect to any other provision relating to stockholders’ rights and pre-initial business combination activity, and (ii) to waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any Class B common stock they hold if we fail to consummate an initial business combination within 18 months (or up to 24 months, if applicable) from the closing of our Public Offering (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the prescribed time frame). The outstanding shares of Class B common stock will automatically convert into shares of our Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination, or can be converted at any time prior thereto at the option of the holder, on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment pursuant to certain anti-dilution rights. The holders of shares of Class B common stock are entitled to registration rights. If we submit our initial business combination to our public stockholders for a vote, our sponsor, officers, and directors have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree), pursuant to the terms of a letter agreement entered into with us, to vote any Class B common stock held by them and any public shares purchased during or after our Public Offering in favor of our initial business combination.

Pursuant to a letter agreement that our sponsor, officers and directors entered into with us and our agreements with BlackRock, with certain limited exceptions, the Class B common stock are not transferable, assignable, or salable until the earlier of (A) one year after the completion of our initial business combination or (B) subsequent to our initial business combination, (x) if the closing price of our Class A common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations, or similar transactions) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after our initial business combination, or (y) the date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of our public stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of Class A common stock for cash, securities or other property.

Warrants

Public Warrants

References herein to “public warrants” are to the warrants that were issued as part of the units in our Public Offering. References herein to “private placement warrants” are to the warrants that were issued in a private placement to our sponsor and to BlackRock simultaneously with the closing of our Public Offering. Collectively, “public warrants” and “private placement warrants” are referred to herein as “warrants”. Each whole warrant entitles the registered holder to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as discussed below, at any time commencing on the later of one year from the closing of our Public Offering and 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination, except as discussed in the immediately succeeding paragraph. Pursuant to the Warrant Agreement, a warrant holder may exercise its warrants only for a whole number of shares of Class A common stock. This means only a whole warrant may be exercised at a given time by a warrant holder. The warrants will expire five years after the completion of our initial business combination, at 5:00 p.m., Washington, D.C. time, or earlier upon redemption or liquidation.

No warrant will be exercisable and we will not be obligated to issue a share of Class A common stock upon exercise of a warrant unless the share of Class A common stock issuable upon the warrant exercise has been registered and qualified under Federal and state securities laws or an applicable exemption from registration exists. In the event that the Class A common stock underlying the warrants is not registered and a valid exemption does not exist, the holder of a warrant will not be entitled to exercise the warrant and the warrant may have no value and could expire worthless. In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant. In the event that a registration statement is not effective for the exercised warrants, the purchaser of a unit will have paid the full purchase price for the unit solely for the share of Class A common stock underlying the unit.
 

We have agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than fifteen business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to file with the SEC a registration statement for the registration, under the Securities Act, of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants, and we will use our commercially reasonable efforts to cause the same to become effective within 60 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, and to maintain the effectiveness of the registration statement and a current prospectus relating to those shares of Class A common stock until the warrants expire or are redeemed, as specified in the warrant agreement.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, if our shares of Class A common stock are at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that they do not satisfy the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, require holders of public warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. If a registration statement covering the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is not effective by the 60th day after the closing of the initial business combination, warrant holders may, until such time as there is an effective registration statement and during any period when we will have failed to maintain an effective registration statement, exercise warrants on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act or another exemption, but we will use commercially reasonable efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. In such event, each holder would pay the exercise price by surrendering the warrants for that number of shares of Class A common stock equal to the lesser of (A) the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of Class A common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “fair market value” (defined below) less the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the fair market value and (B) 0.361 shares of Class A common stock per warrant (subject to adjustment). The “fair market value” as used in this paragraph shall mean the volume weighted average price of the shares of Class A common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the trading day prior to the date on which the notice of exercise is received by the warrant agent.

Redemption of public warrants when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00. Once the public warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding public warrants:

•
in whole and not in part;

•
at a price of $0.01 per public warrant;

•
upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption to each public warrant holder; and

•
if, and only if, the closing price of the shares of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “- Warrants – Public Warrants - Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending three trading days before we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders.

We will not redeem the public warrants unless a registration statement under the Securities Act covering the issuance of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is then effective and a current prospectus relating to those shares of Class A common stock is available throughout the 30-day redemption notice. If and when the public warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws.

We have established the last of the redemption criterion discussed above to prevent a redemption call unless there is at the time of the call a significant premium to the warrant exercise price. If the foregoing conditions are satisfied and we issue a notice of redemption of the warrants, each warrant holder will be entitled to exercise his, her or its warrant prior to the scheduled redemption date. Any such exercise would not be done on a “cashless” basis and would require the exercising warrant holder to pay the exercise price for each warrant being exercised. However, the price of the shares of Class A common stock may fall below the $18.00 redemption trigger price as well as the $11.50 (for whole shares) warrant exercise price after the redemption notice is issued.
 

Redemption of public warrants when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00. Once the public warrants become exercisable, we may redeem the outstanding public warrants:

•
in whole and not in part;

•
at $0.10 per warrant upon a minimum of 30 days’ prior written notice of redemption provided that holders will be able to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis prior to redemption and receive a number of shares determined by the redemption date and the “fair market value” of our Class A common stock except as otherwise described below;

•
if, and only if, the closing price of our Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00 per public share (as adjusted for adjustments to the number of shares issuable upon exercise or the exercise price of a warrant as described under the heading “- Warrants - Public Warrants - Anti-Dilution Adjustments”) for any 20 trading days within the 30-trading day period ending three trading days before we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders; and

•
if the closing price of the Class A common stock for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders is less than $18.00 per share (as may be adjusted), the private placement warrants must also be concurrently called for redemption on the same terms as the outstanding public warrants, as described above.

Beginning on the date the notice of redemption is given until the warrants are redeemed or exercised, holders may elect to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis. The numbers in the table below represent the number of Class A common stock that a warrant holder will receive upon a cashless exercise in connection with a redemption by us pursuant to this redemption feature, based on the “fair market value” of our Class A common stock on the corresponding redemption date (assuming holders elect to exercise their warrants and the warrants are not redeemed for $0.10 per warrant), determined for these purposes based on volume weighted average price of our Class A common stock during the 10 trading days immediately following the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of warrants, and the number of months that the corresponding redemption date precedes the expiration date of the warrants, each as set forth in the table below. We will provide our warrant holders with the final fair market value no later than one business day after the 10-trading day period described above ends.

The share prices set forth in the column headings of the table below will be adjusted as of any date on which the number of shares issuable upon exercise of a warrant or the exercise price of a warrant is adjusted as set forth under the heading “- Anti-dilution Adjustments” below. If the number of shares issuable upon exercise of a warrant is adjusted, the adjusted share prices in the column headings will equal the share prices immediately prior to such adjustment, multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of shares deliverable upon exercise of a warrant immediately prior to such adjustment and the denominator of which is the number of shares deliverable upon exercise of a warrant as so adjusted. The number of shares in the table below shall be adjusted in the same manner and at the same time as the number of shares issuable upon exercise of a warrant. If the exercise price of a warrant is adjusted, (a) in the case of an adjustment pursuant to the fifth paragraph under the heading “- Anti-dilution Adjustments” below, the adjusted share prices in the column headings will equal the unadjusted share price multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price as set forth under the heading “- Anti-dilution Adjustments” and the denominator of which is $10.00 and (b) in the case of an adjustment pursuant to the second paragraph under the heading “- Anti-dilution Adjustments” below, the adjusted share prices in the column headings will equal the unadjusted share price less the decrease in the exercise price of a warrant pursuant to such exercise price adjustment.
 

Redemption Date
  
Fair Market Value of Class A Common Stock
  
(period to expiration of warrants)
  
<10.00
      
11.00
      
12.00
      
13.00
      
14.00
      
15.00
      
16.00
      
17.00
    
>18.00
  
60 months
    
0.261
      
0.281
      
0.297
      
0.311
      
0.324
      
0.337
      
0.348
      
0.358
      
0.361
  
57 months
    
0.257
      
0.277
      
0.294
      
0.310
      
0.324
      
0.337
      
0.348
      
0.358
      
0.361
  
54 months
    
0.252
      
0.272
      
0.291
      
0.307
      
0.322
      
0.335
      
0.347
      
0.357
      
0.361
  
51 months
    
0.246
      
0.268
      
0.287
      
0.304
      
0.320
      
0.333
      
0.346
      
0.357
      
0.361
  
48 months
    
0.241
      
0.263
      
0.283
      
0.301
      
0.317
      
0.332
      
0.344
      
0.356
      
0.361
  
45 months
    
0.235
      
0.258
      
0.279
      
0.298
      
0.315
      
0.330
      
0.343
      
0.356
      
0.361
  
42 months
    
0.228
      
0.252
      
0.274
      
0.294
      
0.312
      
0.328
      
0.342
      
0.355
      
0.361
  
39 months
    
0.221
      
0.246
      
0.269
      
0.290
      
0.309
      
0.325
      
0.340
      
0.354
      
0.361
  
36 months
    
0.213
      
0.239
      
0.263
      
0.285
      
0.305
      
0.323
      
0.339
      
0.353
      
0.361
  
33 months
    
0.205
      
0.232
      
0.257
      
0.280
      
0.301
      
0.320
      
0.337
      
0.352
      
0.361
  
30 months
    
0.196
      
0.224
      
0.250
      
0.274
      
0.297
      
0.316
      
0.335
      
0.351
      
0.361
  
27 months
    
0.185
      
0.214
      
0.242
      
0.268
      
0.291
      
0.313
      
0.332
      
0.350
      
0.361
  
24 months
    
0.173
      
0.204
      
0.233
      
0.260
      
0.285
      
0.308
      
0.329
      
0.348
      
0.361
  
21 months
    
0.161
      
0.193
      
0.223
      
0.252
      
0.279
      
0.304
      
0.326
      
0.347
      
0.361
  
18 months
    
0.146
      
0.179
      
0.211
      
0.242
      
0.271
      
0.298
      
0.322
      
0.345
      
0.361
  
15 months
    
0.130
      
0.164
      
0.197
      
0.230
      
0.262
      
0.291
      
0.317
      
0.342
      
0.361
  
12 months
    
0.111
      
0.146
      
0.181
      
0.216
      
0.250
      
0.282
      
0.312
      
0.339
      
0.361
  
9 months
    
0.090
      
0.125
      
0.162
      
0.199
      
0.237
      
0.272
      
0.305
      
0.336
      
0.361
  
6 months
    
0.065
      
0.099
      
0.137
      
0.178
      
0.219
      
0.259
      
0.296
      
0.331
      
0.361
  
3 months
    
0.034
      
0.065
      
0.104
      
0.150
      
0.197
      
0.243
      
0.286
      
0.326
      
0.361
  
0 months
    
-
      
-
      
0.042
      
0.115
      
0.179
      
0.233
      
0.281
      
0.323
      
0.361
  

The exact fair market value and redemption date may not be set forth in the table above, in which case, if the fair market value is between two values in the table or the redemption date is between two redemption dates in the table, the number of shares of Class A common stock to be issued for each warrant exercised will be determined by a straight-line interpolation between the number of shares set forth for the higher and lower fair market values and the earlier and later redemption dates, as applicable, based on a 365 or 366-day year, as applicable. For example, if the volume weighted average price of our Class A common stock during the 10 trading days immediately following the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of the warrants is $11.00 per share, and at such time there are 57 months until the expiration of the warrants, holders may choose to, in connection with this redemption feature, exercise their warrants for 0.277 shares of Class A common stock for each whole warrant. For an example where the exact fair market value and redemption date are not as set forth in the table above, if the volume weighted average price of our Class A common stock during the 10 trading days immediately following the date on which the notice of redemption is sent to the holders of the warrants is $13.50 per share, and at such time there are 38 months until the expiration of the warrants, holders may choose to, in connection with this redemption feature, exercise their warrants for 0.298 shares of Class A common stock for each whole warrant. In no event will the warrants be exercisable on a cashless basis in connection with this redemption feature for more than 0.361 shares of Class A common stock per warrant (subject to adjustment). Finally, as reflected in the table above, if the warrants are out of the money and about to expire, they cannot be exercised on a cashless basis in connection with a redemption by us pursuant to this redemption feature, since they will not be exercisable for any shares of Class A common stock.

This redemption feature is structured to allow for all of the outstanding warrants to be redeemed when the Class A common stock is trading at or above $10.00 per public share, which may be at a time when the trading price of our Class A common stock is below the exercise price of the warrants. We have established this redemption feature to provide us with the flexibility to redeem the warrants without the warrants having to reach the $18.00 per share threshold set forth above under “- Redemption of public warrants when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00.” Holders choosing to exercise their public warrants in connection with a redemption pursuant to this feature will, in effect, receive a number of shares for their public warrants based on an option pricing model with a fixed volatility input as of the date of our Public Offering. This redemption right provides us with an additional mechanism by which to redeem all of the outstanding public warrants, and therefore have certainty as to our capital structure as the public warrants would no longer be outstanding and would have been exercised or redeemed. We will be required to pay the applicable redemption price to public warrant holders if we choose to exercise this redemption right and it will allow us to quickly proceed with a redemption of the public warrants if we determine it is in our best interest to do so. As such, we would redeem the public warrants in this manner when we believe it is in our best interest to update our capital structure to remove the public warrants and pay the redemption price to the public warrant holders.
 

As stated above, we can redeem the warrants when the Class A common stock is trading at a price starting at $10.00, which is below the exercise price of $11.50, because it will provide certainty with respect to our capital structure and cash position while providing warrant holders with the opportunity to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis for the applicable number of shares. If we choose to redeem the warrants when the shares of Class A common stock are trading at a price below the exercise price of the warrants, this could result in the warrant holders receiving fewer shares of Class A common stock than they would have received if they had chosen to wait to exercise their warrants for shares of Class A common stock if and when the shares of Class A common stock were trading at a price higher than the exercise price of $11.50.

No fractional shares of Class A common stock will be issued upon exercise. If, upon exercise, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will round down to the nearest whole number of the number of shares of Class A common stock to be issued to the holder. If, at the time of redemption, the warrants are exercisable for a security other than the shares of Class A common stock pursuant to the warrant agreement (for instance, if we are not the surviving company in our initial business combination), the warrants may be exercised for such security. At such time as the warrants become exercisable for a security other than the Class A common stock, the Company (or surviving company) will use its commercially reasonable efforts to register under the Securities Act the security issuable upon the exercise of the warrants.

Ownership limit. A holder of a warrant may notify us in writing in the event it elects to be subject to a requirement that the holder will not have the right to exercise such warrant, to the extent that after giving effect to the exercise, the person (together with the person’s affiliates), to the warrant agent’s actual knowledge, would beneficially own in excess of 9.8% (or such other amount as a holder may specify) of the shares of Class A common stock issued and outstanding immediately after giving effect to the exercise.

Anti-dilution Adjustments. If the number of issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock is increased by a stock dividend payable in shares of Class A common stock, or by a split-up of shares of Class A common stock or other similar event, then, on the effective date of the stock dividend, split-up, or similar event, the number of shares of Class A common stock issuable on exercise of each warrant will be increased in proportion to the increase in the outstanding shares of Class A common stock. A rights offering made to all or substantially all holders of Class A common stock entitling holders to purchase shares of Class A common stock at a price less than the “historical fair market value” (as defined below) will be deemed a stock dividend of a number of shares of Class A common stock equal to the product of (i) the number of shares of Class A common stock actually sold in the rights offering (or issuable under any other equity securities sold in the rights offering that are convertible into or exercisable for shares of Class A common stock) and (ii) one minus the quotient of (x) the price per share of Class A common stock paid in the rights offering and (y) the historical fair market value. For these purposes, (i) if the rights offering is for securities convertible into or exercisable for shares of Class A common stock, in determining the price payable for shares of Class A common stock, there will be taken into account any consideration received for the rights, as well as any additional amount payable upon exercise or conversion and (ii) “historical fair market value” means the volume weighted average price of the Class A common stock as reported during the 10 trading day period ending on the trading day prior to the first date on which the Class A common stock trades on the applicable exchange or in the applicable market, regular way, without the right to receive the rights.

In addition, if we, at any time while the warrants are outstanding and unexpired, pay a dividend or make a distribution in cash, securities, or other assets to all or substantially all of the holders of the shares of Class A common stock on account of the shares of Class A common stock (or other securities into which the warrants are convertible), other than (a) as described above, (b) any cash dividends or cash distributions which, when combined on a per share basis with all other cash dividends and cash distributions paid on the shares of Class A common stock during the 365-day period ending on the date of declaration of such dividend or distribution does not exceed $0.50 (as adjusted to appropriately reflect any other adjustments and excluding cash dividends or cash distributions that resulted in an adjustment to the exercise price or to the number of shares of Class A common stock issuable on exercise of each warrant) but only with respect to the amount of the aggregate cash dividends or cash distributions equal to or less than $0.50 per share, (c) to satisfy the redemption rights of the holders of shares of Class A common stock in connection with a proposed initial business combination, (d) to satisfy the redemption rights of the holders of shares of Class A common stock in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (A) to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation prior thereto or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within 18 months (or up to 24 months, if applicable) from the closing of our Public Offering, or (B) with respect to any other provisions relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, or (e) in connection with the redemption of our public shares upon our failure to complete our initial business combination, then the warrant exercise price will be decreased, effective immediately after the effective date of the event, by the amount of cash or the fair market value of any securities or other assets paid on each share of Class A common stock in respect of the event.
 

If the number of issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock is decreased by a consolidation, combination, reverse stock split, or reclassification of shares of Class A common stock or other similar event, then, on the effective date of the consolidation, combination, reverse stock split, reclassification or similar event, the number of shares of Class A common stock issuable on exercise of each warrant will be decreased in proportion to the decrease in issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock.

Whenever the number of shares of Class A common stock purchasable upon the exercise of the warrants is adjusted, as described above, the warrant exercise price will be adjusted by multiplying the warrant exercise price immediately prior to the adjustment by a fraction (x) the numerator of which will be the number of shares of Class A common stock purchasable upon the exercise of the warrants immediately prior to the adjustment and (y) the denominator of which will be the number of shares of Class A common stock so purchasable immediately thereafter.

In addition, if (x) we issue additional shares of Class A common stock or equity-linked securities for capital raising purposes in connection with the closing of our initial business combination at an issue price or effective issue price of less than $9.20 per share of our Class A common stock (with the issue price or effective issue price to be determined in good faith by our board of directors and, in the case of any issuance to our sponsor or their affiliates, without taking into account any shares of Class B common stock held by our sponsor or such affiliates, as applicable, prior to such issuance) (the “Newly Issued Price”), (y) the aggregate gross proceeds from the issuances represent more than 60% of the total equity proceeds, and interest thereon, available for the funding of our initial business combination on the date of the completion of our initial business combination (net of redemptions), and (z) the volume-weighted average trading price of our Class A common stock during the 20 trading day period starting on the trading day prior to the day on which we complete our initial business combination (such price, the “Market Value”) is below $9.20 per share, the exercise price of the warrants will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 115% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, and the $10.00 and $18.00 per share redemption trigger prices described adjacent to “Redemption of warrants when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00” and “Redemption of public warrants when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00” will be adjusted (to the nearest cent) to be equal to 100% and 180% of the higher of the Market Value and the Newly Issued Price, respectively.

In case of any reclassification or reorganization of the issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock (other than those described above or that solely affects the par value of the shares of Class A common stock), or in the case of any merger or consolidation of us with or into another corporation (other than a consolidation or merger in which we are the continuing corporation and that does not result in any reclassification or reorganization of our issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock), or in the case of any sale or conveyance to another corporation or entity of the assets or other property of us as an entirety or substantially as an entirety in connection with which we are dissolved, the holders of the warrants will thereafter have the right to purchase and receive, upon the basis and upon the terms and conditions specified in the warrants and in lieu of the shares of Class A common stock immediately theretofore purchasable and receivable upon the exercise of the rights represented thereby, the kind and amount of shares of Class A common stock or other securities or property (including cash) receivable upon the reclassification, reorganization, merger, or consolidation, or upon a dissolution following any such sale or transfer, that the holder of the warrants would have received if the holder had exercised their warrants immediately prior to the event. However, if the holders were entitled to exercise a right of election as to the kind or amount of securities, cash or other assets receivable upon a consolidation or merger, then the kind and amount of securities, cash or other assets for which each warrant will become exercisable will be deemed to be the weighted average of the kind and amount received per share by the holders in the consolidation or merger that affirmatively make the election, and if a tender, exchange or redemption offer has been made to and accepted by the holders (other than a tender, exchange or redemption offer made by the company in connection with redemption rights held by stockholders of the company as provided for in the company’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation or as a result of the redemption of shares of Class A common stock by the company if a proposed initial business combination is presented to the stockholders of the company for approval) under circumstances in which, upon completion of the tender or exchange offer, the maker thereof, together with members of any group (within the meaning of Rule 13d-5(b)(1) under the Exchange Act) of which the maker is a part, and together with any affiliate or associate of the maker (within the meaning of Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act) and any members of any group of which any affiliate or associate is a part, own beneficially (within the meaning of Rule 13d-3 under the Exchange Act) more than 50% of the issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock, the holder of a warrant will be entitled to receive the highest amount of cash, securities or other property to which the holder would actually have been entitled as a stockholder if the warrant holder had exercised the warrant prior to the expiration of the tender or exchange offer, accepted the offer and all of the shares of Class A common stock held by the holder had been purchased pursuant to the tender or exchange offer, subject to adjustment (from and after the consummation of the tender or exchange offer) as nearly equivalent as possible to the adjustments provided for in the warrant agreement. If less than 70% of the consideration receivable by the holders of shares of Class A common stock in a transaction is payable in the form of shares of Class A common stock in the successor entity that is listed for trading on a national securities exchange or is quoted in an established over-the-counter market, or is to be so listed for trading or quoted immediately following the event, and if the registered holder of the warrant properly exercises the warrant within 30 days following public disclosure of such transaction, the warrant exercise price will be reduced as specified in the warrant agreement based on the Black-Scholes value (as defined in the warrant agreement) of the warrant. The purpose of the exercise price reduction is to provide additional value to holders of the warrants when an extraordinary transaction occurs during the exercise period of the warrants pursuant to which the holders of the warrants otherwise do not receive the full potential value of the warrants.
 

The warrants were issued in registered form under the Warrant Agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder for the purpose of (i) curing any ambiguity or correct any mistake or defective provision or (ii) adding or changing any provisions with respect to matters or questions arising under the Warrant Agreement as the parties to the Warrant Agreement may deem necessary or desirable and that the parties deem to not adversely affect the rights of the registered holders of the warrants, provided that the approval by the holders of at least 65% of the then-outstanding public warrants is required to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants.

The warrant holders do not have the rights or privileges of holders of common stock and any voting rights until they exercise their warrants and receive shares of Class A common stock. After the issuance of shares of Class A common stock upon exercise of the warrants, each holder will be entitled to one vote for each share held of record on all matters to be voted on by stockholders.

No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. If, upon exercise of the warrants, a holder would be entitled to receive a fractional interest in a share, we will, upon exercise, round down to the nearest whole number the number of shares of Class A common stock to be issued to the warrant holder.

We have agreed that, subject to applicable law, any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the Warrant Agreement will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and we irrevocably submit to the jurisdiction, which jurisdiction will be the exclusive forum for any action, proceeding or claim. This provision applies to claims under the Securities Act but does not apply to claims under the Exchange Act or any claim for which the Federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum.

Private Placement Warrants

Except as described below, the private placement warrants have terms and provisions that are identical to those of the warrants being sold as part of the units in our Public Offering. The private placement warrants (including the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants) are not transferable, assignable or salable until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination (except to our officers and directors and other persons or entities affiliated with the initial purchasers of the private placement warrants) and they will not be redeemable by us (except as described under “- Warrants - Public Warrants - Redemption of warrants when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00”) so long as they are held by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees (except as otherwise set forth herein). Each initial purchaser of private placement warrants, or its permitted transferees, has the option to exercise the private placement warrants on a cashless basis and have certain registration rights described herein. If the private placement warrants are held by holders other than the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, the private placement warrants will be redeemable by us in all redemption scenarios and exercisable by the holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units being sold in our Public Offering. Any amendment to the terms of the private placement warrants or any provision of the warrant agreement with respect to the private placement warrants will require a vote of holders of at least 65% of the number of the then outstanding private placement warrants.
 

Except as described above under “- Public Warrants - Redemption of warrants when the price per share of Class A common stock equals or exceeds $10.00,” if holders of the private placement warrants elect to exercise them on a cashless basis, they would pay the exercise price by surrendering his, her or its warrants for that number of shares of Class A common stock equal to the quotient obtained by dividing (x) the product of the number of shares of Class A common stock underlying the warrants, multiplied by the excess of the “Sponsor fair market value” (defined below) over the exercise price of the warrants by (y) the Sponsor fair market value. For these purposes, the “Sponsor fair market value” shall mean the average reported closing price of the Class A common stock for the 10 trading days ending on the third trading day prior to the date on which the notice of warrant exercise is sent to the warrant agent.

In order to fund working capital deficiencies or finance transaction costs in connection with an intended initial business combination, our sponsor or an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors may, but are not obligated to, loan us funds as may be required. Up to $1,500,000 of the loans may be convertible into warrants of the post business combination entity at a price of $1.00 per warrant at the option of the lender. The warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants.

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains certain requirements and restrictions relating to our Public Offering that apply to us until the completion of our initial business combination. These provisions (other than amendments relating to the election or removal of directors prior to completion of our initial business combination, which require the approval of a majority of at least 90% of all then outstanding common stock voting in a stockholder meeting) cannot be amended without the approval of the holders of at least 65% of our common stock. Our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees, if any, who collectively beneficially own 20% of our common stock , will participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and will have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. Specifically, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that:

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If we have not completed our initial business combination within 18 months (or up to 24 months, if applicable) from the closing of our Public Offering, we will (i) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up, (ii) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter subject to lawfully available funds therefor, redeem the public shares, at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, including franchise and income taxes (less up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law, and (iii) as promptly as reasonably possible following the redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law;

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Prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares of capital stock that would entitle the holders thereof to (i) receive funds from the trust account or (ii) vote as a class with our public shares on any initial business combination or to approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to amend the foregoing provisions;

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Although we do not intend to enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with our sponsor, our directors, or our officers, we are not prohibited from doing so. In the event we enter into such a transaction, we, or a committee of independent directors, will obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm or an independent accounting firm that the business combination is fair to our company from a financial point of view;

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If a stockholder vote on our initial business combination is not required by law or NYSE and we do not decide to hold a stockholder vote for business or other reasons, we must offer to redeem our public shares pursuant to Rule 13e-4 and Regulation 14E of the Exchange Act, and will file tender offer documents with the SEC prior to consummating our initial business combination which contain substantially the same financial and other information about our initial business combination and the redemption rights as is required under Regulation 14A of the Exchange Act;

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As long as we are listed on the NYSE, our initial business combination must occur with one or more operating target businesses or assets that together have an aggregate fair market value of at least 80% of our assets held in the trust account (excluding the deferred underwriting discounts and commissions and funds previously released to us to pay taxes payable on the income earned on the trust account) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination;

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If our stockholders approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (i) that would modify the substance or timing of our obligation to allow redemption in connection with our initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated an initial business combination within 18 months (or up to 24 months, if applicable) from the closing of our Public Offering, or (ii) with respect to any other provision relating to stockholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, we will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of Class A common stock upon such approval at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest earned on the funds held in the trust account and not previously released to us to pay our taxes, including franchise and income taxes, divided by the number of then issued and outstanding public shares; and

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We will not effectuate our initial business combination solely with another blank check company or a similar company with nominal operations.

In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that under no circumstances will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 following the redemption upon consummation of our initial business combination.

Certain Anti-Takeover Provisions of Delaware Law and Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws

We have elected to be exempt from the restrictions imposed under Section 203 of the DGCL. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions providing that we may not engage in certain “business combinations” with any “interested stockholder” for a three-year period following the time that the stockholder became an interested stockholder, unless:

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prior to that time, our board of directors approved either the business combination or the transaction which resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder;

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upon consummation of the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, the interested stockholder owned at least 85% of our voting stock outstanding at the time the transaction commenced, excluding certain shares; or

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at or subsequent to that time, the business combination is approved by our board of directors and by the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 2/3% of the outstanding voting stock that is not owned by the interested stockholder.

Generally, a “business combination” includes a merger, asset or stock sale or certain other transactions resulting in a financial benefit to the interested stockholder. Subject to certain exceptions, an “interested stockholder” is a person who, together with that person’s affiliates and associates, owns, or within the previous three years owned, 20% or more of our voting stock.

Under certain circumstances, this provision will make it more difficult for a person who would be an “interested stockholder” to effect various business combinations with a corporation for a three-year period. This provision may encourage companies interested in acquiring our company to negotiate in advance with our board of directors because the stockholder approval requirement would be avoided if our board of directors approves either the business combination or the transaction which results in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder. These provisions also may have the effect of preventing changes in our board of directors and may make it more difficult to accomplish transactions which stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests.
 

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our sponsor and its respective affiliates, any of their respective direct or indirect transferees of at least 20% of our outstanding common stock and any group as to which such persons are party to, do not constitute “interested stockholders” for purposes of this provision.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our board of directors will be classified into three classes of directors. As a result, in most circumstances, a person can gain control of our board only by successfully engaging in a proxy contest at two or more annual meetings.

Our authorized but unissued common stock and preferred stock are available for future issuances without stockholder approval, subject to the limitations set forth in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, and could be utilized for a variety of corporate purposes, including future offerings to raise additional capital, acquisitions and employee benefit plans. The existence of authorized but unissued and unreserved common stock and preferred stock could render more difficult or discourage an attempt to obtain control of us by means of a proxy contest, tender offer, merger or otherwise.

Exclusive Forum for Certain Lawsuits

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the sole and exclusive forum for any (i) derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of our company, (ii) action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer, employee or agent of our company to our company or our stockholders, or any claim for aiding and abetting any such alleged breach, (iii) action asserting a claim against our company or any director, or officer or employee of our company arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our bylaws, or (iv) action asserting a claim against us or any director, or officer or employee of our company governed by the internal affairs doctrine except for, as to each of (i) through (iv) above, any claim (a) as to which the Court of Chancery determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such a determination), (b) which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery, or (c) arising under the federal securities laws, including the Securities Act, as to which the Court of Chancery and the federal district court for the District of Delaware shall concurrently be the sole and exclusive forums. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the provisions of this paragraph will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America shall be the sole and exclusive forum. If an action is brought outside Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on the stockholder’s counsel. Although we believe this provision benefits us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law in the types of lawsuits to which it applies, the provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.

Classified Board of Directors

Our board of directors is divided into three classes, Class I, Class II and Class III, with members of each class serving staggered three-year terms. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the authorized number of directors may be changed only by resolution of the board of directors. Subject to the terms of any preferred stock, following completion of our initial business combination any or all of the directors may be removed from office at any time, but only for cause and only by the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of the voting power of all then outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class. Any vacancy on our board of directors, including a vacancy resulting from an enlargement of our board of directors, may be filled only by vote of a majority of our directors then in office.
 

Class B Common Stock Consent Right

For so long as any shares of Class B common stock remain outstanding, we may not, without the prior vote or written consent of the holders of a majority of the shares of Class B common stock then outstanding, voting separately as a single class, amend, alter, or repeal any provision of our certificate of incorporation, whether by merger, consolidation, or otherwise, if the amendment, alteration, or repeal would alter or change the powers, preferences, or relative, participating, optional, or other or special rights of the Class B common stock. Any action required or permitted to be taken at any meeting of the holders of Class B common stock may be taken without a meeting, without prior notice and without a vote, if a consent or consents in writing, setting forth the action so taken, shall be signed by the holders of the outstanding Class B common stock having not less than the minimum number of votes that would be necessary to authorize or take the action at a meeting at which all shares of Class B common stock were present and voted.