WSJ: Shutterfly in talks to go public. Again.

Less than two years since leading photo personalization company, Shutterfly Inc., went private through its acquisition by Apollo Global Management, the Wall Street Journal reports the company is in talks to go public as part of the latest wave of financial tools called “special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs.” According to the article by Cara Lombardo and Miriam Gottfried, Shutterfly is discussing a deal with a SPAC called Altimar Acquisition Corp. II that would value it at between $4 billion and $5 billion including debt. Details weren’t revealed and final deal could still be weeks away or even could fall through.

In a SPAC, the entity raises money in a public offering with plans to later find one or more companies to merge with.

According to the Wall Street Journal article, interest in taking Shutterfly public again emerged as pandemic-fueled growth increased:

Prior to Shutterfly’s leveraged buyout, its outlook had faded as online-photo services became ubiquitous and competitors with ample resources, including Google Photos, stole market share. But demand for photo keepsakes has increased since the pandemic arrived about a year ago and made people nostalgic for past travels and special occasions such as weddings and graduations. Shutterfly’s revenue growth, which was roughly flat when Apollo bought it, is now in the double digits, one of the people said.

Shutterfly was among the first wave of photo-printing web sites that emerged in the late 1990s and first went public in 2006. Apollo bought the company in 2019 for around $2.6 billion including debt and then combined it with Snapfish LLC.