Broadband internet startup Starry Group Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy less than a year after going public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The discount internet service provider said in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., that a liquidity crunch, mounting debts and the high costs of supporting existing infrastructure made it necessary to resort to chapter 11 to restructure the business. The bankruptcy filing came less than a year after Starry went public in March 2022 by completing its merger with FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp., a SPAC backed by the founders and executives of technology-focused venture-capital firm FirstMark Capital. SPACs were popular investments on Wall Street in 2021, booming alongside cryptocurrencies, meme stocks and other risky assets. The boom has since turned to bust. Shares in many companies that went public through SPACs have crashed and some startups are backing out of these merger deals. Starry, based in Boston, has reached an agreement with key creditors on a restructuring framework and aims to sell its assets for at least $170 million through a competitive bidding process, subject to bankruptcy-court approval. Starry’s key creditors back its restructuring plan, the court filing said.
