Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has invested $200 million in Forbes, which plans to go public in SPAC merger in the first quarter under the ticker FRBS, CNBC has learned.
According to sources close to the matter, Binance will replace half of the $400 million in commitments from institutional investors announced by Forbes in August. The report says the deal would make the cryptocurrency exchange one of the top two biggest owners of Forbes. Binance will reportedly also get two directors (Patrick Hillmann and Bill Chin) out of nine total board seats, people close to the deal added.
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In November 2020, Binance filed a lawsuit against Forbes Media and two of its journalists, Michael del Castillo and Jason Brett, in New Jersey, for allegedly publishing a defamatory article. In an article published on October 29, 2020, Forbes accused Binance of creating a complex structure aimed at evading regulatory requirements and obtaining secret profits from US investors. Binance Founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, rejected all the accusations.
Binance noted that the Forbes article contained false, misleading and defamatory statements. The exchange insisted it did not create the document mentioned in the article and that it did not act in accordance with the plan specified in it. In addition, the alleged author of the document, Harry Zhou, has reportedly never worked for the exchange.
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