Benzinga | Jul 1, 2021 04:21PM EDT

Ascendant Digital Acquisition Corp. Announces Extraordinary General Meeting Date To Approve Proposed Business Combination With MarketWise

Ascendant Digital Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:ACND) ("Ascendant") announced today that it has scheduled the extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders (the "extraordinary general meeting") for July 20, 2021 at 10:00 a.m., Eastern time, to, among other things, approve the proposed business combination (the "Business Combination") with MarketWise, LLC ("MarketWise"), a leading multi-brand digital subscription services platform that provides premium financial research, software, education, and tools for self-directed investors.

Ascendant also announced that it has filed its definitive proxy statement/prospectus for the extraordinary general meeting and has commenced mailing the definitive proxy statement/prospectus to its shareholders of record as of May 28, 2021, the record date for the extraordinary general meeting (the "record date"). The closing of the Business Combination is subject to approval by Ascendant's shareholders and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions and is expected to close as soon as practicable following the extraordinary general meeting.

Upon closing of the Business Combination, the combined company will change its name to "MarketWise, Inc.", and intends to list its shares of Class A common stock and warrants on The Nasdaq Capital Market ("Nasdaq") under the ticker symbols "MKTW" and "MKTWW", respectively. Trading is currently expected to begin on Nasdaq on or about July 22, 2021. Until the Business Combination is complete, Ascendant's Class A ordinary shares, warrants and units will continue to trade under the ticker symbols "ACND", "ACND WS" and "ACND.U", respectively, on The New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE"). The decision to list on Nasdaq was made in consideration of the Business Combination and enables the post-business combination company to be listed alongside other innovative companies that are also listed on Nasdaq. At the closing of the Business Combination, Ascendant will delist its ordinary shares, warrants and units from the NYSE. The Nasdaq listing and NYSE delisting are subject to the closing of the Business Combination and fulfillment of all Nasdaq listing requirements.

Following completion of the Business Combination, MarketWise will retain its experienced management team. Mark Arnold will continue to serve as CEO, Dale Lynch will continue as CFO, Marco Ferri will continue to serve as Director of Business Development, Gary Anderson will continue to serve as General Counsel, Marco Galsim will continue to serve as Chief Information Officer and Cynthia Cherry will continue to serve as Senior Director of Human Resources.

Mark Gerhard, CEO of Ascendant, commented, "MarketWise is a leading company operating in what we call the "Attention Economy" with a significant opportunity to take share in a truly massive market, estimated to be more than $190 billion. Additionally, their technology platform is highly scalable, which positions the company for continued growth in the years ahead. After vetting more than 100 companies and getting to know MarketWise and the management team well, I am very excited with the opportunity ahead and encourage all of our shareholders to vote in favor of our business combination."

Mark Arnold, CEO of MarketWise, added, "We look forward to the shareholder vote and the opportunity to continue our journey, as a public company for our customers, employees and all of our stakeholders. As a public company, MarketWise's industry-leading brands and offerings will unlock further growth potential as we strive to meet the growing needs of the self-directed investor."