Privately held companies preparing for an initial public offering often undertake a public company readiness assessment and seek to identify the gaps that must be addressed prior to their becoming subject to the corporate governance and other rules applicable to public companies. Often, this assessment is conducted over a period of months and the IPO preparations may span many more months. However, given the intense interest in mergers with SPACs, many attractive private company “targets” may not have had the opportunity to undertake their readiness assessment. The public company readiness process may have to be compressed and often will be undertaken in parallel with the negotiation of the initial business combination agreement and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s review of the proxy or proxy/prospectus.