RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Free speech video platform Rumble has gone public. The offering went live on the Nasdaq on Thursday.
The announcement came on Wednesday (8) that Rumble, a Canadian company, would merge with CF Acquisition Corp VI (CFVI.O, a special purpose acquisition company, with an initial enterprise value of US$2.1 billion, according to Reuters. US$400 million in proceeds will go to Rumble, and voting control will remain with Rumble founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski.
Dan Bongino announced the plans for a public offering on the platform itself, saying that he was “really excited” about the plans. Bongino has been involved with trying to bring back a free and open internet, one without the kind of censorship and overreach found on platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
“I’ve been involved in a project to re-establish the free and open Internet, we were given in the beginning days of the internet,” Bongino said.
“I was involved very early on, in some tech investments to establish a parallel free economy, free of censorship. It’s something I passionately believe in. It’s my life’s project, it’s everything. It’s my heart, it’s my soul. It’s all I believe in. I’m willing to pour everything into it to establish those principles of freedom and liberty back on the Internet free and open, free of censorship, that free speech should rule the day. And unfortunately, it hasn’t happened on the internet.”
“We’ve seen some of these companies, you know, Google, Amazon, Apple and YouTube, we’ve seen with some of them have done: the censoring effort to silence opposing voices. And I poured my heart and my money and my soul into building this open, free and parallel economy.”
“So I have some news I wanted to share with you all first here on this platform. So Rumble, which you know, I am an investor in, which I passionately believe in it is the free speech alternative to some of these other video outlets out there that choose to censor free speech.”
“Rumble is now combining with a public company, CFVI, news broke tonight, which I’m happy to announce here in an effort to grow and to allow other people out there to invest in the company as it goes forward. And I just want to tell you, I’m extremely proud. I wanted to announce it here. We’ve done a lot.”
“And I’m just sorry, I was a little emotional about this tonight, because it’s been such an incredible journey. But yeah, just to reiterate, Rumble is combining with CFVI, in an effort to raise money in the public space, and to grow and so that you all can become part with us of this new free and open internet that shouldn’t be new. It’s how it originally started. But this new free speech economy, I’m really proud.”
“I wanted you all to hear it first. You matter to me. You’ve been with me for a long time. You’re just a wonderful audience on this platform and others and I deeply appreciate it. I didn’t want to hear from anyone else. First. I’ll be discussing it on my podcast tomorrow as well. And on my shows, this is a really great day, folks. The battle for free speech in the open Internet. It’s taken a turn the tides are turning and you should be proud that you’re part of it too.”
“Censorship’s not the right path forward. We knew that. I’m really proud to be part of Rumble. It’s a short one today. But again, I wanted you to hear it from me first, not from someone else. You’ve been kind enough to spend your time with me on this page and elsewhere. You deserve to hear from me personally.”
Key figures:
- Tremendous growth from 1.6 million average monthly active users in Q3 2020 to a record 36 million average monthly active users in Q3 2021
- 44 million monthly active users in August 2022
- Viewer engagement grew 44x from Q2 2020 to Q3 2021 to 8 billion minutes watched per month.
- The transaction is expected to provide approximately US$400 million in proceeds to Rumble, including a fully committed PIPE of US$100 million at US$10.00 per share and US$300 million of cash held in the trust account of CFVI
- Transaction gives Rumble an enterprise value of US$2.1 billion
- Rumble Founder and Chief Executive Officer to retain voting control to facilitate execution of Rumble’s mission on behalf of all stakeholders
After closing, which is expected in the second quarter of 2022, the combined company will be called Rumble Inc. and expects to be publicly listed on Nasdaq. Shares will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol CFVI until the closing of the transaction.
ABOUT RUMBLE
Rumble is a high-growth free speech video distribution platform. Rumble has created rails and independent infrastructure that are immune to cancel culture. Rumble’s mission is to restore the internet to its roots based on freedom of expression and creativity.
ABOUT CF ACQUISITION CORP. VI
CFVI is a blank check company led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick and sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald.
ABOUT CANTOR FITZGERALD
Cantor Fitzgerald, with over 12,000 employees, is a leading global financial services group at the forefront of financial and technological innovation and has been a proven and resilient leader for over 70 years.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. is a preeminent investment bank serving more than 5,000 institutional clients around the world, recognized for its strengths in fixed income and equity capital markets, investment banking, SPAC underwriting and PIPE placements, prime brokerage, and commercial real estate on its global distribution platform. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. is one of 24 primary dealers transacting business with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. For more information, please visit: www.cantor.com.