Triller is going public. In a press release issued yesterday, Triller announced plans to merge with SeaChange International, Inc. as a step towards trading publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol “ILLR”.
Triller is best known to boxing fans as the company behind a series of boxing events and music showcases. Their first big splash in the sport was a November 2020 exhibition bout between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr that our editor Scott Christ called “perfectly enjoyable” and “y’know, fine.” That fight was followed up by an April 2021 Jake Paul vs Ben Askren event that sold a lot of pay-per-views, and a $6 Million purse bid win that gave them the rights to promote Teofimo Lopez vs George Kambosos Jr.
The Lopez-Kambosos fight was originally seen as a high profile first step towards working with top level, contemporary, professional boxers, and led to rumors that major promoters like Golden Boy might sign on to regularly stage fights through Triller. But, a series of delays and questionable management decisions turned Lopez-Kambosos into a seven month boondoggle that resulted in Triller losing the fight (and a $1.2 Million deposit).
Along the way, Triller also promoted a widely maligned fight between Vitor Belfort and Evander Holyfield that Scott Christ described at the time as “one of the saddest, most disgraceful displays of pessimistic nonsense the sport of boxing will ever see.” They launched a series of $2.99 Tuesday night boxing and music streaming events and got sued over using a triangle ring design for their mixed MMA-boxing “Triad Combat” events.
SeaChange, not to be confused with the late 1990s Australian soap opera by the same name, is described in the press release as “a publicly-traded company focused on advanced digital advertising.” They recently reported a Q3 loss of $2.1 Million against $7.2 Million in total revenue, and at the time of this story, their stock is trading for $1.88 per share.
The two companies will combine in a reverse merger, a faster and cheaper alternative to an initial public offering [IPO] transition for a private company seeking to trade publicly. If the deal proceeds as planned, Triller will combine with the publicly traded SeaChange in early 2022, change the name of the combined companies to TrillerVerz Corp and trade publicly on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “ILLR.”
For anyone seeking deep, knowledgeable insight on the merits of a reverse merger as compared to an IPO or a special-purpose acquisition company [SPAC] path towards public trading in this case? Well, let me know if you find it, because I’d love to read it, too.
What I can do instead is save anyone wanting to play tech company buzzword bingo the trouble of reading the whole press release. Check your cards for:
- AI-powered
- platform
- content
- Web3.0
- decentralized systems
- creators
- monetize
- proprietary
- innovative solutions
- successfully deployed
- optimize
- customer journey
- emerging technologies
- robust acquisition strategy
Congratulations and best wishes to Triller and SeaChange on their union. We wish them lots of love and joy for many years to come.