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PART I

References in this Annual Report to “we,” “us,” the “Company,” “company” or “our company” are to Churchill Capital Corp VII, a Delaware corporation. References to “management” or our “management team” are to our officers and directors. References to our “sponsor” is to Churchill Sponsor VII LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. References to our “initial stockholders” are to the holders of our founder shares prior to our initial public offering.

Item 1.Business.

Introduction

We are a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or other similar business combination with one or more businesses, which we refer to throughout this Annual Report as our initial business combination. On August 1, 2023, the Company entered into the Merger Agreement (as defined below) by and among the Company, Pubco, Merger Sub, CorpAcq (each as defined below) and certain shareholders of CorpAcq. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, the Merger Sub will merge with and into the Company, with the Company being the surviving entity in the merger. Please see “ — 2023 and 2024 Developments” for additional information. We have neither engaged in any operations nor generated any revenue to date. Based on our business activities, the Company is a “shell company” as defined under the Exchange Act because we have no operations and nominal assets consisting almost entirely of cash.

Our founder, Michael Klein, is also the founder and managing partner of M. Klein and Company, LLC (together with its affiliates, “M. Klein and Company”), which he founded in 2012. M. Klein and Company is a global strategic advisory firm that provides its clients a variety of advice tailored to their objectives. Mr. Klein is a strategic advisor to global companies, boards of directors, senior executives, governments and institutional investors. Mr. Klein’s background in strategic advisory work was built during his 37 year career, including more than two decades at Citigroup Inc. (“Citi”) and its predecessors, during which he initiated and executed strategic advisory transactions. He began his career as an investment banker in the M&A Advisory Group at Salomon Brothers and subsequently became Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Citi Markets and Banking, with responsibilities for Global Corporate and Investment Banking and Global Transaction Services across Citi. In his role as Co- CEO, he was responsible for all relationship, advisory, underwriting, and capital markets issuance activity.

Our executive offices are located at 640 Fifth Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10019 and our telephone number is (212) 380-7500. Our corporate website address is http://vii.churchillcapitalcorp.com. Our website and the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the website is not deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and is not considered part of, this Annual Report. You should not rely on any such information in making your decision whether to invest in our securities.

Company History

In December 2020, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 8,625,000 shares of Class B common stock (the “Class B common stock” or “founder shares”) for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share. On February 5, 2021, we effected a stock dividend with respect to our Class B common stock of 20,125,000 shares thereof. Additionally, on February 11, 2021, we effected a stock dividend with respect to our Class B common stock of 5,750,000 shares thereof, resulting in 34,500,000 founder shares outstanding. All share and per-share amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the stock dividends. The number of shares of Class B common stock issued was based on the expectation that the shares of Class B common stock would represent 20% of the outstanding shares of our determined Class A common stock and our Class B common stock (collectively, our “common stock”) upon completion of the initial public offering (the “IPO”).

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On February 17, 2021, we completed our IPO of 138,000,000 units at a price of $10.00 per unit (the “units”), generating gross proceeds of $1,380,000,000. Each unit consists of one of the Company’s shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the “public shares” or “Class A common stock”), and one-fifth of one warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to certain adjustments.

Concurrently with the completion of the IPO, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 32,600,000 warrants (the “private placement warrants”) at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $32,600,000 in the aggregate. An aggregate of $1,380,000,000 from the proceeds of the IPO and the private placement warrants was placed in a trust account (the “trust account”) such that the trust account held $1,380,000,000 at the time of closing of the IPO. Each whole private placement warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to certain adjustments.

On April 2, 2021, we announced that, commencing April 5, 2021, holders of the 138,000,000 units sold in the IPO may elect to separately trade the shares of Class A common stock and the warrants included in the units. Those units not separated trade on the Nasdaq Global Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “CVIIU” and the shares of Class A common stock and warrants that were separated trade under the symbols “CVII” and “CVIIW,” respectively.

2023 and 2024 Developments

On August 1, 2023, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) by and among the Company, Polaris Pubco Plc (now known as CorpAcq Group Plc), a public limited company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales (“Pubco”), NorthSky Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation and direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Pubco (“Merger Sub”), CorpAcq Holdings Limited, a private limited company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales (“CorpAcq”) and certain shareholders of CorpAcq. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, the parties thereto intend to enter into a business combination transaction pursuant to which certain shareholders of CorpAcq will contribute their interests in CorpAcq to Pubco and Merger Sub will merge with and into the Company, with the Company being the surviving entity in the merger.

The proposed merger is expected to be consummated after the required approval by the stockholders of the Company and the satisfaction of certain other conditions summarized below.

The total consideration to be paid to the shareholders of CorpAcq will be equal to the sum of:

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share) (the “Incremental Share Consideration”) equal to (i) the absolute value of the Delivered Capital Adjustment Amount (as defined in the Merger Agreement), divided by (ii) $10.00, multiplied by (iii) 50%; plus

The Merger Agreement contains customary representations, warranties and covenants by the parties thereto and the closing is subject to certain conditions as further described in the Merger Agreement

At a special meeting of our stockholders held on May 11, 2023, our stockholders approved an amendment to our amended and restated charter to extend the date by which we must consummate an initial business combination from May 17, 2023 to February 17, 2024 (or such earlier date as determined by the Churchill Board). In connection with the initial extension, on May 16, 2023, our sponsor agreed to make monthly deposits directly to the trust account of $1,000,000 per month. Such contributions are made pursuant to a non-interest bearing unsecured promissory note (as amended, the “Extension Promissory Note”).

On February 5, 2024, we completed the voluntary transfer of the listing of our Class A common stock, units and warrants from the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) to Nasdaq. Our Class A common stock, units and warrants are currently traded on Nasdaq under the symbols “CVII,” “CVIIU” and “CVIIW,” respectively.

At a subsequent special meeting of our stockholders (the “February Extension Special Meeting”) held on February 8, 2024, our stockholders approved an amendment to our amended and restated charter to extend the date by which we must consummate an initial business combination from February 17, 2024 to August 17, 2024 (or such earlier date as determined by the Churchill Board) (such amendment, the “Extension”). The purpose of the Extension is to allow us additional time to complete our initial business combination. The payment of such fee would likely be conditioned upon the completion of the initial business combination. In connection with the February Extension Special Meeting, our stockholders approved an amendment to our charter to provide for the right of holders of founder shares to convert some or all of the founder shares into shares of our Class A common stock on a one-to-one basis at any time at the election of the holder.

On February 9, 2024, we and the sponsor amended the Extension Promissory Note issued by us to the sponsor on May 16, 2023, pursuant to which the sponsor has agreed to continue to make monthly deposits directly to the trust account of $1,000,000 million per month (each deposit, a “Contribution”).

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Pursuant to the Extension Promissory Note, each contribution will be paid monthly beginning on May 17, 2023 and thereafter on the seventeenth day of each month (or if such seventeenth day is not a business day, on the business day immediately preceding such seventeenth day) until the earliest to occur of (i) August 15, 2024, (ii) the consummation of an initial business combination, and (iii) if an initial business combination is not consummated, the date on which our board of directors (determines, in its sole discretion, to liquidate the trust account. The Extension Promissory Note will mature on the earlier of (1) the date we consummate an initial business combination and (2) the date that the winding up of our company is effective (such date, the “Maturity Date”). The Extension Promissory Note does not bear any interest, and is repayable by us to the sponsor upon the Maturity Date. The Maturity Date may be accelerated upon the occurrence of an “Event of Default” (as defined in the Extension Promissory Note). Any outstanding principal under the Extension Promissory Note may be prepaid at any time by us, at our election and without penalty.

Sponsor Agreement

In connection with the execution of the Merger Agreement, the Company amended and restated in its entirety that certain letter, dated February 11, 2021, from the sponsor and each of the individuals party thereto, each of whom is a member of the Company’s board of directors and/or management team (each, an “Insider” and collectively, the “Insiders”) to the Company (the “Support Agreement”), pursuant to which among other things, each of the sponsor and the Insiders agreed (i) to vote any of such Insider’s shares of common stock (1) in favor of the approval and adoption of the Merger Agreement and approval of the related transactions and all other CCVII Stockholder Matters (as defined in the Sponsor Agreement) and (2) against certain other matters, (ii) not to redeem any of such Insider’s shares of common stock in connection with the CCVII Stockholder Redemption, (iii) to take all actions to consummate the Merger, the other transactions and the matters contemplated by the Merger Agreement and the Sponsor Agreement and be bound by and comply with Sections 9.04 (Exclusivity) and 9.06 (Confidentiality; Publicity) of the Merger Agreement, (iv) not to enter into, modify or amend any contract between or among the Sponsor, any Insider, anyone related by blood, marriage or adoption to any Insider or any affiliate of any such person (other than the Company or any of its subsidiaries), on the one hand, and the Company or any of its subsidiaries, on the other hand, that would contradict, limit, restrict or impair (1) any party’s ability to perform or satisfy any obligation under the Sponsor Agreement or (2) Pubco’s, Bermuda Co’s, the Company’s or Merger Sub’s ability to perform or satisfy any of its obligations under the Merger Agreement, and (v) to be bound to certain other obligations as described therein.

Initial Business Combination

It is a requirement under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that an initial business combination must occur with one or more operating businesses that together have a fair market value of at least 80% of the net assets held in the trust account (net of amounts disbursed as permitted withdrawals and excluding the amount of any deferred underwriting discount) at the time of the agreement to enter into the initial business combination. As of August 1, 2023, the date of the execution of the Merger Agreement, the balance of the funds in the trust account was approximately $600.0 million (excluding up to $48.3 million of deferred underwriting commissions as of such date) and 80% thereof represents approximately $480.0 million. In reaching its conclusion on the 80% asset test, our board used as a fair market value the $803.8 million equity value for CorpAcq, which was implied based on the terms of the business combination agreed to by the parties in negotiating the Merger Agreement. The amount of time that any such person will devote in any time period to our company will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires the affirmative vote of a majority of our board of directors, which must include a majority of our independent directors, to approve our initial business combination (or such other vote as the applicable law or stock exchange rules then in effect may require).4 Table of ContentsOur amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires the affirmative vote of a majority of our board of directors, which must include a majority of our independent directors, to approve our initial business combination (or such other vote as the applicable law or stock exchange rules then in effect may require).

Corporate Information

We are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements.

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Financial Position

As of December 31, 2023, we had $594,061,727 of funds available for our business combination, assuming no further redemptions and after payment of up to $17,931,375 of deferred underwriting fees. In connection with the February Extension Special Meeting, 951,810 shares of Class A common stock were redeemed, resulting in the payment of approximately $10 million from the trust account. Based on redemptions in other recent SPAC initial business combinations, we may yet experience high levels of redemptions in connection with any vote on our initial business combination. Furthermore, based on redemptions in other recent SPAC initial business combinations, we may experience high levels of redemptions in connection with any extension vote or initial business combination.

Lack of Business Diversification

For an indefinite period of time after the completion of our initial business combination, the prospects for our success may depend entirely on the future performance of a single business.

By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity, our lack of diversification may:

Limited Ability to Evaluate the Target’s Management Team

Although we closely scrutinized the management of the prospective target business when evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with that business, our assessment of the target business’s management may not prove to be correct. In addition, the future management may not have the necessary skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company. Furthermore, the future role of members of our management team, if any, in the target business cannot presently be stated with any certainty. While it is possible that one or more of our directors will remain associated in some capacity with us following our initial business combination, it is highly unlikely that any of them will devote their full efforts to our affairs subsequent to our initial business combination. Moreover, we cannot assure you that members of our management team will have significant experience or knowledge relating to the operations of the particular target business.

We cannot assure you that any of our key personnel will remain in senior management or advisory positions with the combined company. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with the combined company will be made at the time of our initial business combination.

Following our initial business combination, we may seek to recruit additional managers to supplement the incumbent management of the target business. We cannot assure you that we will have the ability to recruit additional managers, or that additional managers will have the requisite skills, knowledge or experience necessary to enhance the incumbent management.

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Redemption rights for public stockholders upon completion of our initial business combination

We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of common stock upon the completion of our initial business combination at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account as of two business days prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, subject to the limitations described herein. The amount in the trust account as of the closing of the IPO was $10.00 per public share. The per share amount we will distribute to investors who properly redeem their shares will not be reduced by the deferred underwriting commissions we will pay to the underwriters. The redemption right will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares without voting, and if they do vote, irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination with respect to our warrants. There will be no redemption rights upon the completion of our initial business combination or any extension vote with respect to our warrants. Our sponsor, officers and directors have each entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination (the “letter agreement”).

Manner of conducting redemptions

We will provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem all or a portion of their shares of Class A common stock upon the completion of our initial business combination, in connection with a stockholder meeting called to approve the business combination.

Since stockholder approval of the transaction is required by applicable law or stock exchange listing requirement, we will, pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation:

We expect that a final proxy statement would be mailed to public stockholders at least 10 days prior to the stockholder vote. Although we are not required to do so, we currently intend to comply with the substantive and procedural requirements of Regulation 14A in connection with any stockholder vote even if we are not able to maintain our Nasdaq listing or Exchange Act registration.

In connection with the stockholder meeting called to approve of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public stockholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.In the event that we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination, we will distribute proxy materials and, in connection therewith, provide our public stockholders with the redemption rights described above upon completion of the initial business combination.

Unless otherwise required by applicable law, regulation or stock exchange rules, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination.If we seek stockholder approval, unless otherwise required by applicable law, regulation or stock exchange rules, we will complete our initial business combination only if a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock voted are voted in favor of the business combination. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the Company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the Company entitled to vote at such meeting. A quorum for such meeting will consist of the holders present in person or by proxy of shares of outstanding capital stock of the company representing a majority of the voting power of all outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at such meeting. Our initial stockholders, officers and directors will count towards this quorum and have agreed to vote any founder shares and any public shares held by them in favor of our initial business combination. These quorum and voting thresholds and agreements, may make it more likely that we will consummate our initial business combination. Each public stockholder may elect to redeem its public shares without voting, and if they do vote, irrespective of whether they vote for or against the proposed transaction. In addition, our sponsor, officers and directors have each entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of a business combination.

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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement related to our initial business combination. Redemptions of our public shares may also be subject to a higher net tangible asset test or cash requirement pursuant to an agreement relating to our initial business combination. For example, the proposed business combination may require: (1) cash consideration to be paid to the target or its owners; (2) cash to be transferred to the target for working capital or other general corporate purposes; or (3) the retention of cash to satisfy other conditions in accordance with the terms of the proposed business combination. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of Class A common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, and all shares of Class A common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof.

Limitation on redemption upon completion of our initial business combination in connection with seeking stockholder approval

Notwithstanding the foregoing, in connection with seeking stockholder approval of our initial business combination, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the IPO, without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.” We believe this restriction will discourage stockholders from accumulating large blocks of shares, and subsequent attempts by such holders to use their ability to exercise their redemption rights against a proposed business combination as a means to force us or our affiliates to purchase their shares at a significant premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. Absent this provision, a public stockholder holding more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the IPO could threaten to exercise its redemption rights if such holder’s shares are not purchased by us or our sponsor or our affiliates at a premium to the then-current market price or on other undesirable terms. By limiting our stockholders’ ability to redeem no more than 15% of the shares sold in the IPO, we believe we will limit the ability of a small group of stockholders to unreasonably attempt to block our ability to complete our initial business combination, particularly in connection with a business combination with a target that requires as a closing condition that we have a minimum net worth or a certain amount of cash. However, we would not be restricting our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination.

Tendering stock certificates in connection with redemption rights

We may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the proxy materials mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically using The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/Withdrawal At Custodian) System, rather than simply voting against the initial business combination at the holder’s option. The proxy materials that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements, which will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. The tender offer or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will indicate whether we are requiring public stockholders to satisfy such delivery requirements, which will include the requirement that any beneficial owner on whose behalf a redemption right is being exercised must identify itself in order to validly redeem its shares. Accordingly, a public stockholder would have up to two business days prior to the vote on the business combination to tender its shares if it wishes to seek to exercise its redemption rights. A final proxy statement will be mailed to public stockholders at least 10 days prior to the stockholder vote. Given the relatively short exercise period, it is advisable for stockholders to use electronic delivery of their public shares.

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There is a nominal cost associated with the above-referenced tendering process and the act of certificating the shares or delivering them through The Depository Trust Company’s DWAC (Deposit/ Withdrawal At Custodian) System. The transfer agent will typically charge the tendering broker $80.00 and it would be up to the broker whether or not to pass this cost on to the redeeming holder. However, this fee would be incurred regardless of whether or not we require holders seeking to exercise redemption rights to tender their shares. The need to deliver shares is a requirement of exercising redemption rights regardless of the timing of when such delivery must be effectuated.

The foregoing is different from the procedures used by many blank check companies. In order to perfect redemption rights in connection with their business combinations, many blank check companies would distribute proxy materials for the stockholders’ vote on an initial business combination, and a holder could simply vote against a proposed business combination and check a box on the proxy card indicating such holder was seeking to exercise his or her redemption rights. After the business combination was approved, the Company would contact such stockholder to arrange for him or her to deliver his or her certificate to verify ownership. After the business combination was approved, the company would contact such stockholder to arrange for him or her to deliver his or her certificate to verify ownership. As a result, the stockholder then had an “option window” after the completion of the business combination during which he or she could monitor the price of the Company’s stock in the market. If the price rose above the redemption price, he or she could sell his or her shares in the open market before actually delivering his or her shares to the Company for cancellation. As a result, the redemption rights, to which stockholders were aware they needed to commit before the stockholder meeting, would become “option” rights surviving past the completion of the business combination until the redeeming holder delivered its certificate. The requirement for physical or electronic delivery prior to the meeting ensures that a redeeming holder’s election to redeem is irrevocable once the business combination is approved.

Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to the date of the stockholder meeting set forth in our proxy materials.Any request to redeem such shares, once made, may be withdrawn at any time up to the date set forth in the tender offer materials or the date of the stockholder meeting set forth in our proxy materials, as applicable. Furthermore, if a holder of a public share delivered its certificate in connection with an election of redemption rights and subsequently decides prior to the applicable date not to elect to exercise such rights, such holder may simply request that the transfer agent return the certificate (physically or electronically). It is anticipated that the funds to be distributed to holders of our public shares electing to redeem their shares will be distributed promptly after the completion of our initial business combination.

If our initial business combination is not approved or completed for any reason, then our public stockholders who elected to exercise their redemption rights would not be entitled to redeem their shares for the applicable pro rata share of the trust account. In such case, we will promptly return any certificates delivered by public holders who elected to redeem their shares.

If our initial proposed business combination is not completed, we may continue to try to complete a business combination with a different target until the end of the completion window (as defined below).

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Redemption of Public Shares and Liquidation if no Initial Business Combination

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we have until August 17, 2024 to complete our initial business combination (the period from the closing of the IPO until August 17, 2024, the “completion window”). If we are unable to complete our initial business combination by August 17, 2024 we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination by May 17, 2023 (or any such extended date that may be approved pursuant to an extension vote), we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window.

Our initial stockholders, officers and directors have each entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window.9 Table of ContentsOur initial stockholders, officers and directors have each entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have waived their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window. However, if our sponsor or any of our officers and directors acquires public shares after the IPO, it will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to such public shares if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window.

Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement with us, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of Class A common stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. However, we may not redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets, after payment of the deferred underwriting commissions, to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement related to our initial business combination.

We expect that all costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, as well as payments to any creditors, will be funded from amounts held outside the trust account, although we cannot assure you that there will be sufficient funds for such purpose. However, if those funds are not sufficient to cover the costs and expenses associated with implementing our plan of dissolution, to the extent that there is any interest accrued in the trust account not required to pay taxes or make other permitted withdrawals, we may request the trustee to release to us an additional amount of up to $100,000 of such accrued interest to pay those costs and expenses.

If we were to expend all of the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, other than the proceeds deposited in the trust account, and without taking into account interest, if any, earned on the trust account and any permitted withdrawals or expenses for the dissolution of the trust, the per share redemption amount received by stockholders upon our dissolution would be $10.55 as of December 31, 2023. The proceeds deposited in the trust account could, however, become subject to the claims of our creditors which would have higher priority than the claims of our public stockholders. We cannot assure you that the actual per share redemption amount received by stockholders will not be substantially less than $10.00. Please see “Item 1A. Risk Factors — If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein. Under Section 281(b) of the DGCL, our plan of dissolution must provide for all claims against us to be paid in full or make provision for payments to be made in full, as applicable, if there are sufficient assets. These claims must be paid or provided for before we make any distribution of our remaining assets to our stockholders. While we intend to pay such amounts, if any, we cannot assure you that we will have funds sufficient to pay or provide for all creditors’ claims.

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Although we seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, there is no guarantee that they will execute such agreements or even if they execute such agreements that they would be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account including but not limited to fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain an advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where we are unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. In order to protect the amounts held in the trust account, our sponsor has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below (1) $10.00 per public share in the aggregate or (2) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals, except as to any claims by a third party that executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether any such waiver is enforceable) and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have not independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company and, therefore, our sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such obligations. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per public share. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.

In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below: (1) $10.00 per public share in the aggregate or (2) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its indemnification obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in certain instances. For example, the cost of such legal action may be deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or the independent directors may determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that due to claims of creditors the actual value of the per share redemption price will not be substantially less than $10.00 per share. Please see “Item 1A. Risk Factors — If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein.

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We will seek to reduce the possibility that our sponsor will have to indemnify the trust account due to claims of creditors by endeavoring to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the trust account. Our sponsor will also not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. As of December 31, 2023, we had access to approximately $612.0 million in the trust account with which to pay any such potential claims (including costs and expenses incurred in connection with our liquidation, currently estimated to be no more than approximately $100,000). In the event that we liquidate and it is subsequently determined that the reserve for claims and liabilities is insufficient, stockholders who received funds from our trust account could be liable for claims made by creditors.

Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If the corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution.

Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful, then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window (or within any extended date that may be approved pursuant to an extension vote), we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than ten business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. There will be no redemption rights or liquidating distributions with respect to our warrants, which will expire worthless if we fail to complete our initial business combination within such completion window. Accordingly, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following the expiration of the completion window and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with those procedures. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend well beyond the third anniversary of such date.

Because we will not be complying with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the subsequent ten years.Because we do not intend to comply with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the 10 years following our dissolution. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations are limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, etc.) or prospective target businesses. As described above, pursuant to the obligation contained in our underwriting agreement, we seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account.

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As a result of this obligation, the claims that could be made against us are significantly limited and the likelihood that any claim that would result in any liability extending to the trust account is remote.

Further, our sponsor may be liable only to the extent necessary to ensure that the amounts in the trust account are not reduced below: (1) $10.00 per public share; or (2) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals and will not be liable as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act.

If we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, we cannot assure you we will be able to return $10.00 per share to our public stockholders. Additionally, if we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our stockholders. Furthermore, our board may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or may have acted in bad faith, and thereby exposing itself and our company to claims of punitive damages, by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors. We cannot assure you that claims will not be brought against us for these reasons. Please see “Item 1A. Risk Factors — If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.”

Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only in the event of the redemption of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, if they redeem their respective shares for cash in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance and timing of our obligation to redeem 100% of our public shares or if they redeem their respective shares for cash upon the completion of the initial business combination. In no other circumstances will a stockholder have any right or interest of any kind to or in the trust account. In the event we seek stockholder approval in connection with our initial business combination, a stockholder’s voting in connection with our initial business combination alone will not result in a stockholder’s redeeming its shares to us for an applicable pro rata share of the trust account. Such stockholder must have also exercised its redemption rights described above.

Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains certain requirements and restrictions relating to the IPO that will apply to us until the consummation of our initial business combination. These provisions (other than amendments relating to the election and removal of directors, which require the approval of a majority of the Class B common stock then outstanding) cannot be amended without the approval of the holders of at least 65% of our common stock. Our initial stockholders, who collectively beneficially own 37.7% of our common stock, may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. Prior to an initial business combination, we may not issue additional securities that can vote on amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. Specifically, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that:

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In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that under no circumstances will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination.

Certain Potential Conflicts of Interest Relating to M. Klein and Company and Our Officers and Directors

Our sponsor is an affiliate of M. Klein and Company. Mr. Klein is the founder and managing partner of M. Klein and Company and acts as a strategic advisor to its clients. Mr. Klein has a fiduciary duty to M. Klein and Company, as well as to other entities in which he serves as a director or officer. As a result, Mr. Klein may have a duty to offer acquisition opportunities to clients of M. Klein and Company or to other entities he owes a fiduciary duty. Mr. Klein had no duty to offer acquisition opportunities to the Company unless presented to him solely in his capacity as an officer or director of the Company and after he has satisfied his contractual and fiduciary obligations to other parties. Klein will have no duty to offer acquisition opportunities to the Company unless presented to him solely in his capacity as an officer or director of the Company and after he has satisfied his contractual and fiduciary obligations to other parties. As a result, M. Klein and Company’s clients may have competed with us for acquisition opportunities in the same industries and sectors as we targeted for our initial business combination. Klein and Company’s clients may compete with us for acquisition opportunities in the same industries and sectors as we may target for our initial business combination. If any of them decided to pursue any such opportunity, we would have been precluded from procuring such opportunities. If any of them decide to pursue any such opportunity, we may be precluded from procuring such opportunities. In addition, investment ideas generated within M. Klein and Company, including by Mr. Klein and other persons who may make decisions for the Company, may have been suitable both for us and for M. Klein and other persons who may make decisions for the company, may be suitable both for us and for M. Klein and Company or any of its clients, and would have been directed initially to such persons rather than to us. Klein and Company or any of its clients, and will be directed initially to such persons rather than to us. None of Mr. Klein, M. Klein and Company or members of our management team who are also employed by M. Klein and Company had any obligation to present us with any opportunity for a potential business combination of which they

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became aware unless it was offered to them solely in their capacity as a director or officer of the Company and after they had satisfied their contractual and fiduciary obligations to other parties.

In addition, Mr. Klein and M. Klein and Company may have sponsored or formed other blank check companies similar to ours, including during the period in which we were seeking an initial business combination. Klein and Company may sponsor or form other blank check companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target. In particular M. Klein and Company, Mr. Klein and the Strategic and Operating Partners are actively engaged in AltC Acquisition Corp. Klein and the Strategic Partners are actively engaged in AltC Acquisition Corp. , a special purpose acquisition corporation that completed its initial public offering in July 2021, and Churchill Capital Corp IX, a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company that is in the process of completing its initial public offering as of the date of this report. AltC Acquisition Corp., like us, is able to pursue initial business combination targets in any businesses or industries and has until July 12, 2024 to do so (absent an extension in accordance with its charter). Any such companies, including AltC Acquisition Corp. and Churchill Capital Corp IX, may have presented or may present, as applicable, additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target and may present additional conflicts of interest in completing our initial business combination. In addition, Mr. Klein, our Chief Executive Officer, is Chief Executive Officer of Churchill Capital Corp IX, Mr. Taragin, our Chief Financial Officer, is Chief Financial Officer of M. Klein and Company, AltC Acquisition Corp and Churchill Capital Corp IX and Stephen Murphy, one of our directors, is a director nominee of Churchill Capital Corp IX.

The potential conflicts described above may limit our ability to complete a business combination or other transactions.The potential conflicts described above may limit our ability to enter into a business combination or other transactions. These circumstances could give rise to numerous situations where interests may conflict.

There can be no assurance that these or other conflicts of interest with the potential for adverse effects on the Company and investors will not arise.”​15 Table of ContentsThere can be no assurance that these or other conflicts of interest with the potential for adverse effects on the Company and investors will not arise.

Limitations on Our Access to Investment Opportunities Sourced by M. Klein and Company

M. Klein and Company may have competed with us for acquisition opportunities that we targeted for our initial business combination. Klein and Company may compete with us for acquisition opportunities that we may target for our initial business combination. If M. Klein and Company decided to pursue any such opportunity or determined in its sole discretion not to offer such opportunity to us, we may have been precluded from procuring such opportunities. In addition, investment ideas generated within M. Klein and Company or by persons who may make decisions for us may have been suitable for both us and for M. Klein and Company may have been directed to M. Klein and Company may be directed to M. Klein and Company or other third parties rather than to us. M. Klein and Company does not have any fiduciary, contractual or other obligations or duties to our company, including, without limitation, to present us with any opportunity for a potential business combination of which they become aware.

Our management team, in their other endeavors (including any affiliation they may have with M. Klein and Company), may have chosen or been required to present potential business combinations or other transactions to M. Klein and Company), may choose or be required to present potential business combinations or other transactions to M. Klein and Company or third parties, before they presented such opportunities to us. Please see “Item 1A. Risk Factors — Certain of our officers and directors are now, and all of them may in the future become, affiliated with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity or other transaction should be presented” in Part I of this Annual Report.

Not All Members of Our Management Team are Independent of M. Klein and Company

Our management team is responsible for the management of our affairs. Mr. Klein is the founder and managing partner of M. Klein and Company and acts as a strategic advisor to its clients. Mr. Klein has a fiduciary duty to M. Klein and Company, as well as to other entities in which he serves as a director or officer. As a result, Mr. Klein may have a duty to offer acquisition opportunities to clients of M. Klein and Company. Mr. Klein had no duty to offer acquisition opportunities to the Company unless presented to him in his capacity as an officer or director of the Company or to other entities he owes a fiduciary duty. Klein will have no duty to offer acquisition opportunities to the Company unless presented to him in his capacity as an officer or director of the Company or to other entities he owes a fiduciary duty. Please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance — Conflicts of Interest” in Part III of this Annual Report for additional information regarding conflicts of interest relating to our management team.

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Sponsor Indemnity

Our sponsor, an affiliate of M. Klein and Company, has agreed that it will be liable to us if and to the extent any claims by a third party (other than our independent registered public accounting firm) for services rendered or products sold to us, or a prospective target business with which we have discussed entering into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below: (1) $10.00 per public share; or (2) the actual amount per public share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case, net of permitted withdrawals, except as to any claims by a third party that executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether any such waiver is enforceable) and except as to any claims under our indemnity of the underwriters of the IPO against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. We have not independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsor’s only assets are securities of our company and, therefore, our sponsor may not be able to satisfy those obligations. We have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such obligations. Therefore, we cannot assure you that our sponsor would be able to satisfy those obligations. We believe the likelihood of our sponsor having to indemnify the trust account is limited because we will endeavor to have all vendors and prospective target businesses as well as other entities execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to monies held in the trust account.

Facilities

We currently maintain our executive offices at 640 Fifth Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10019. The cost for this space is included in the $50,000 per month fee that we pay an affiliate of our sponsor for office space, administrative and support services. We consider our current office space adequate for our current operations.

Employees

We currently have two officers and do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our initial business combination. Members of our management team are not obligated to devote any specific number of hours to our matters but they intend to devote as much of their time as they deem necessary to our affairs until we have completed our initial business combination. The amount of time that any such person will devote in any time period to our company will vary based on whether a target business has been selected for our initial business combination and the current stage of the business combination process.

Periodic Reporting and Financial Information

Our units, Class A common stock and warrants are registered under the Exchange Act and we have reporting obligations, including the requirement that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with the SEC. The SEC maintains an internet site at http://www.sec.gov that contains such reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. In accordance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, our annual reports contain financial statements audited and reported on by our independent registered public accounting firm.

We are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements.

Legal Proceedings

There is no material litigation, arbitration or governmental proceeding currently pending against us or any members of our management team in their capacity as such, and we and the members of our management team have not been subject to any such proceeding in the 12 months preceding the date hereof.

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Item 1A.Risk Factors.

An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully all of the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report, the prospectus associated with our IPO and the registration statement of which such prospectus forms a part before making a decision to invest in our securities. If any of the following events occur, our business, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Summary of Risk Factors

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with:

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Risks Relating to Consummation of or Inability to Consummate an Initial Business Combination

Holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote for our proposed business combination, which means we may complete our initial business combination even though a majority of our public stockholders do not support such a combination.

In connection with our proposed initial business combination, holders of our founder shares will participate in the vote on such approval. Holders of our founder shares hold 37.7% of our common stock. Accordingly, we may consummate our initial business combination even if holders of a majority of our outstanding public shares do not approve of the business combination we consummate. Please see “Item 1. Business — Manner of conducting redemptions” for additional information.

Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed to vote in favor of such initial business combination, regardless of how our public stockholders vote.Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed that we must complete our initial business combination within the completion window.

Our initial stockholders, officers and directors have agreed (and their permitted transferees will agree) to vote any founder shares and any public shares held by them in favor of our initial business combination. As a result, in addition to our founder shares, we would need 11,282,131, or 19.8%, of the 57,064,261 public shares to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted) in order to have such initial business combination approved. As a result, in addition to our initial stockholders’ founder shares, we would need 51,750,001 or 37.5%, of the 138,000,000 public shares sold in the IPO to be voted in favor of a transaction (assuming all issued and outstanding shares are voted) in order to have such initial business combination approved. Holders of our founder shares hold 37.7% of our common stock. Accordingly, it is more likely that the necessary stockholder approval will be received than would be the case if our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees agreed to vote their founder shares in accordance with the majority of the votes cast by our public stockholders.

Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash and the stockholder vote regarding the approval of such business combination.Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination will be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash, unless we seek stockholder approval of such business combination.

Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination may be limited to exercising your redemption rights within the period of time set forth in our proxy documents mailed to our public stockholders in which we describe our initial business combination and voting on such business combination.Your only opportunity to affect the investment decision regarding a potential business combination will be limited to the exercise of your right to redeem your shares from us for cash, unless we seek stockholder approval of such business combination.

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The ability of our public stockholders to redeem their shares for cash may prevent us from completing the initial business combination.

The Merger Agreement has a minimum cash condition that requires as a closing condition that we have a certain amount of cash. If too many public stockholders exercise their redemption rights in connection with the business combination, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to consummate the business combination. If too many public stockholders exercise their redemption rights in connection with the business combination and/or any extension vote, we would not be able to meet such closing condition and, as a result, would not be able to proceed with the business combination. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with a business combination and such amount of deferred underwriting discount is not available for us to use as consideration in an initial business combination. The amount of the deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters will not be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with a business combination or extension vote and such amount of deferred underwriting discount is not available for us to use as consideration in an initial business combination. Furthermore, in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (so that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. Consequently, if accepting all properly submitted redemption requests would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 or such greater amount necessary to satisfy a closing condition as described above, we would not proceed with such redemption and the related business combination and may instead search for an alternate business combination or liquidate. If we are able to consummate the business combination, the per-share value of shares held by non-redeeming stockholders will reflect our obligation to pay the deferred underwriting commissions. If we are able to consummate an initial business combination, the per-share value of shares held by non-redeeming stockholders will reflect our obligation to pay the deferred underwriting commissions.

The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares may not allow us to complete the most desirable business combination or optimize our capital structure.The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your stock.

At the time we entered into the Merger Agreement, we did not know how many stockholders may exercise their redemption rights and, therefore, we had to structure the transaction based on our expectations as to the number of shares that would be submitted for redemption. Since the Merger Agreement contains a minimum cash condition, we needed to reserve a portion of the cash in the trust account to meet such requirements or may need to arrange for third-party financing. In addition, if a larger number of shares is submitted for redemption than we initially expected, we may need to restructure the transaction to reserve a greater portion of the cash in the trust account or arrange for third party financing. Raising additional third-party financing may involve dilutive equity issuances or the incurrence of indebtedness at higher than desirable levels. Furthermore, this dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provision of the Class B common stock results in the issuance of shares of Class A common stock on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B common stock at the time of our initial business combination. In addition, the amount of deferred underwriting commissions payable to the underwriters is not required to be adjusted for any shares that are redeemed in connection with an initial business combination. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the business combination or optimize our capital structure. The above considerations may limit our ability to complete the most desirable business combination available to us or optimize our capital structure.

The ability of our public stockholders to exercise redemption rights with respect to a large number of our shares could increase the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful and that you would have to wait for liquidation in order to redeem your stock.

Because the Merger Agreement contains a minimum cash condition, the probability that our initial business combination would be unsuccessful increases. If our initial business combination is unsuccessful, you would not receive your pro rata portion of the trust account until we liquidate the trust account. If you are in need of immediate liquidity, you could attempt to sell your stock in the open market; however, at such time our stock may trade at a discount to the pro rata amount per share in the trust account. In either situation, you may suffer a material loss on your investment or lose the benefit of funds expected in connection with our redemption until we liquidate or you are able to sell your stock in the open market.

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We may not be able to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, in which case we will cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up and we would redeem our public shares and liquidate, in which case our public stockholders would only receive approximately $10.55 per share based on amounts in the trust account at December 31, 2023, or less than such amount in certain circumstances.

Pursuant to our amended and restated charter, we must consummate our initial business combination within the completion window. There can be no assurances that we will be able to complete the business combination or to find a suitable alternative target business within such time period. Our ability to complete our initial business combination may be negatively impacted by general market conditions, volatility in the capital and debt markets and the other risks described herein. For example, the U.S. debt ceiling and budget deficit concerns have increased the possibility of credit-rating downgrades and economic slowdowns, or a recession in the United States. Financial markets also may be adversely affected by current or anticipated military conflict, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, terrorism, sanctions or other geopolitical events globally, which could cause or continue to cause, as applicable, market disruptions, including significant volatility in energy and other commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions, and adversely affect the global economy and financial markets leading to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets. Financial markets also may be adversely affected by current or anticipated military conflict, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, terrorism, sanctions or other geopolitical events globally, which could cause or continue to cause, as applicable, market disruptions, including significant volatility in energy and other commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions, and adversely affect the global economy and financial markets leading to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets. Any negative impact on the global economy, capital markets or other geopolitical conditions resulting from downgrades to the U.S. government’s sovereign credit rating or its perceived creditworthiness, the war in Ukraine and subsequent actions could adversely affect our search for a business combination and any target business with which we may ultimately consummate a business combination.

If we have not completed our initial business combination within the completion window, we will: (1) cease all operations except for the purpose of winding up; (2) as promptly as reasonably possible but not more than 10 business days thereafter, redeem the public shares, at a per share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of permitted withdrawals and up to $100,000 of interest to pay dissolution expenses), divided by the number of then outstanding public shares, which redemption will completely extinguish public stockholders’ rights as stockholders (including the right to receive further liquidating distributions, if any), subject to applicable law; and (3) as promptly as reasonably possible following such redemption, subject to the approval of our remaining stockholders and our board of directors, dissolve and liquidate, subject in each case to our obligations under Delaware law to provide for claims of creditors and the requirements of other applicable law. In such case, our public stockholders may receive only $10.55 per share (based on amounts in the trust account at December 31, 2023), or less than $10.00 per share in certain circumstances where a third party brings a claim against us that the sponsor is unable to indemnify (as described herein), on the redemption of their shares. Please see “—If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein.

If permitted withdrawals and other sources of working capital are insufficient, it could limit the amount available to complete our initial business combination. If we are unable to obtain such loans, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.

If we are required to seek additional capital, we would need to borrow funds from our sponsor, management team or other third parties to operate or may be forced to liquidate. Neither our sponsor, members of our management team nor any of their respective affiliates is under any obligation or other duty to loan funds to us in such circumstances. Any such loans would be repaid only from funds held outside the trust account or from funds released to us upon completion of our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because of insufficient funds, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination because we do not have sufficient funds available to us, we will be forced to cease operations and liquidate the trust account. In such case, our public stockholders may receive only $10.55 per share (based on amounts in the trust account at December 31, 2023), or less in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless. In such case, our public stockholders may receive only $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, and our warrants will expire worthless. Please see “—If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein.

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Our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates may elect to purchase shares or warrants from the public, which may influence a vote on a proposed business combination and reduce the public “float” of our common stock.

At any time prior to the stockholder special meeting in connection with the business combination, during a period when they are not then aware of any material nonpublic information regarding our public shares, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates may (although they are under no obligation to do so) purchase public shares or public warrants from public stockholders in privately negotiated transactions or in the open market and separate from the redemption process in connection with the stockholder special meeting in connection with the business combination. If the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from stockholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional financing (including from M. Our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates will only make open market purchases to the extent the price per public share so acquired is no higher than the redemption price that would be available in connection with the redemption procedures described in the proxy statement/prospectus filed in connection with the stockholder special meeting. In addition, our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates will waive any redemption rights with respect to any public shares purchased in open market purchases and will not vote any public shares purchased in open market purchases in favor of the business combination proposal.

As of the date of this report, no such transactions have occurred nor are they planned to occur. However any such purchase arrangements might include, without limitation, that in the event shares are purchased in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares.In the event that our sponsor, directors, officers, advisors or any of their respective affiliates purchase public shares in privately negotiated transactions from public stockholders who have already elected to exercise their redemption rights, such selling public stockholders would be required to revoke their prior elections to redeem their shares. Similarly, our sponsor, and our directors, officers or advisors or any of our respective affiliates may (although they are under no obligation to do so) enter into arrangements or contractual acknowledgements with public stockholders, including to (i) confirm that such stockholder, although still the record holder of public shares, is no longer the beneficial owner thereof and therefore agrees not to exercise its redemption rights or (ii) protect such stockholders against potential loss in value of their shares, including through the granting of put options and the transfer to such stockholders of shares owned by our sponsor for nominal value. In addition, the founder shares, all of which are held by our initial stockholders, entitle the holders to elect all of our directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, provided, however, that with respect to the election of directors in connection with a meeting of the stockholders of the Company in which a business combination is submitted to the stockholders of the Company for approval, holders of the Class A common stock and holders of the Class B common stock, voting together as a single class, shall have the exclusive right to vote for the election of directors.

The purposes of such purchases and arrangements would be to reduce the number of public shares that may be redeemed in connection with the stockholder special meeting, and to increase the likelihood of satisfaction of the requirements to consummate the business combination where it appears that such requirements would otherwise not be met, and may, in the case of purchases, include a business decision to increase such purchaser’s ownership of shares at an attractive price. If such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A common stock may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to obtain or maintain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on Nasdaq or another national securities exchange or reducing the liquidity of the trading market for such securities.In addition, if such purchases are made, the public “float” of our Class A common stock and the number of beneficial holders of our securities may be reduced, possibly making it difficult to maintain or obtain the quotation, listing or trading of our securities on a national securities exchange.

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If a stockholder fails to receive notice of our offer to redeem our public shares in connection with our initial business combination, or fails to comply with the procedures for redeeming its shares, such shares may not be redeemed.

If a stockholder fails to receive our proxy materials, such stockholder may not become aware of the opportunity to redeem its shares. In addition, the proxy materials that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly redeem public shares. In addition, the tender offer documents or proxy materials, as applicable, that we will furnish to holders of our public shares in connection with our initial business combination will describe the various procedures that must be complied with in order to validly tender or redeem public shares. For example, we may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically. For example, we may require our public stockholders seeking to exercise their redemption rights, whether they are record holders or hold their shares in “street name,” to either tender their certificates to our transfer agent prior to the date set forth in the tender offer or proxy materials documents mailed to such holders, or up to two business days prior to the vote on the proposal to approve the initial business combination in the event we distribute proxy materials, or to deliver their shares to the transfer agent electronically. In the event that a stockholder fails to comply with these procedures, its shares may not be redeemed. You will not have any rights or interests in funds from the trust account, except under certain limited circumstances. To liquidate your investment, therefore, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.

Our public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earlier to occur of: (1) the completion of our initial business combination, and then only in connection with those shares of Class A common stock that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein; (2) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window; and (3) the redemption of all of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law and as further described herein.23 Table of ContentsOur public stockholders will be entitled to receive funds from the trust account only upon the earlier to occur of: (1) the completion of our initial business combination, and then only in connection with those shares of Class A common stock that such stockholder properly elected to redeem, subject to the limitations described herein; (2) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window; and (3) the redemption of all of our public shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, subject to applicable law and as further described herein. In addition, if we are unable to complete an initial business combination within the completion window for any reason, compliance with Delaware law may require that we submit a plan of dissolution to our then-existing stockholders for approval prior to the distribution of the proceeds held in our trust account. In that case, public stockholders may be forced to wait beyond the completion window before they receive funds from our trust account. In no other circumstances will a public stockholder have any right or interest of any kind in the trust account. Holders of warrants will not have any right to the proceeds held in the trust account with respect to the warrants. Accordingly, to liquidate your investment, you may be forced to sell your public shares or warrants, potentially at a loss.

If the funds available to us outside of the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the completion window, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.24 Table of ContentsIf the funds available to us outside of the trust account are insufficient to allow us to operate for at least the completion window, we may be unable to complete our initial business combination.

The funds available to us outside of the trust account may not be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the completion window, assuming that our initial business combination is not completed during that time. We expect to incur significant costs in pursuit of our acquisition plans. However, our affiliates are not obligated to make loans to us in the future, and we may not be able to raise additional financing from unaffiliated parties necessary to fund our expenses. Any such event in the future may negatively impact the analysis regarding our ability to continue as a going concern at such time.

We believe that the funds available to us outside of the trust account, including permitted withdrawals and loans or additional investments from our sponsor, will be sufficient to allow us to operate for at least the completion window; however, we cannot assure you that our estimate is accurate. Of the funds available to us, we could use a portion of the funds available to us to pay fees to consultants to assist us with our search for a target business. We could also use a portion of the funds as a down payment or to fund a “no-shop” provision (a provision in letters of intent or merger agreements designed to keep target businesses from “shopping” around for transactions with other companies or investors on terms more favorable to such target businesses) with respect to a particular proposed business combination, although we do not have any current intention to do so. If we entered into a letter of intent or merger agreement where we paid for the right to receive exclusivity from a target business and were subsequently required to forfeit such funds (whether as a result of our breach or otherwise), we might not have sufficient funds to continue searching for, or conduct due diligence with respect to, a target business. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.55 per share (based on amounts in the trust account at December 31, 2023), or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less than such amount in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. Please see “If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share” and other risk factors included herein.

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Subsequent to our completion of our initial business combination, we may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and the price of our securities, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.

We cannot assure you that our due diligence will identify all material issues that may be present with a particular target business, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of the target business and outside of our control will not later arise. As a result of these factors, we may be forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in our reporting losses. Even if our due diligence successfully identifies certain risks, unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our preliminary risk analysis. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to violate net worth or other covenants to which we may be subject as a result of assuming pre-existing debt held by a target business or by virtue of our obtaining post-combination debt financing. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain a stockholder or warrant holder following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities. Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.

If third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.25 Table of ContentsIf third parties bring claims against us, the proceeds held in the trust account could be reduced and the per share redemption amount received by stockholders may be less than $10.00 per share.

Our placing of funds in the trust account may not protect those funds from third-party claims against us. Although we will seek to have all vendors, service providers (other than our independent registered public accounting firm), prospective target businesses or other entities with which we do business execute agreements with us waiving any right, title, interest or claim of any kind in or to any monies held in the trust account for the benefit of our public stockholders, such parties may not execute such agreements, or even if they execute such agreements they may not be prevented from bringing claims against the trust account, including, but not limited to, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary responsibility or other similar claims, as well as claims challenging the enforceability of the waiver, in each case in order to gain advantage with respect to a claim against our assets, including the funds held in the trust account. If any third party refuses to execute an agreement waiving such claims to the monies held in the trust account, our management will perform an analysis of the alternatives available to it and will only enter into an agreement with a third party that has not executed a waiver if management believes that such third party’s engagement would be significantly more beneficial to us than any alternative. Making such a request of potential target businesses may make our acquisition proposal less attractive to them and, to the extent prospective target businesses refuse to execute such a waiver, it may limit the field of potential target businesses that we might pursue. Examples of possible instances where we may engage a third party that refuses to execute a waiver include the engagement of a third party consultant whose particular expertise or skills are believed by management to be significantly superior to those of other consultants that would agree to execute a waiver or in cases where we are unable to find a service provider willing to execute a waiver. In addition, there is no guarantee that such entities will agree to waive any claims they may have in the future as a result of, or arising out of, any negotiations, contracts or agreements with us and will not seek recourse against the trust account for any reason. Upon redemption of our public shares, if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window, or upon the exercise of a redemption right in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to provide for payment of claims of creditors that were not waived that may be brought against us within the 10 years following redemption. Accordingly, the per share redemption amount received by public stockholders could be less than the per share amount initially held in the trust account, due to claims of such creditors.

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Our sponsor has agreed that it will indemnify us if and to the extent losses to which it may become subject as a result of any claims by a vendor (other than our independent public accountants) for services rendered or products sold to it, or a prospective target business with which it has entered into a transaction agreement, reduce the amount of funds in the trust account to below the lesser of (i) $10.00 per share of our Class A common stock or (ii) the actual amount per share of Class A common stock held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share of Class A common stock is then held in the trust account due to reductions in the value of the trust assets less a price per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, including interest (net of amounts withdrawn to fund our working capital requirements, subject to an annual limit of $1,000,000, and/or to pay our taxes. Such indemnification obligation (x) shall not apply to any claims by a third party that executed a waiver of any and all rights to the monies held in the trust account (whether or not such waiver is enforceable) and (x) shall not apply to any claims under our indemnity of Citigroup Global Markets Inc. against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act. Moreover, in the event that an executed waiver is deemed to be unenforceable against a third party, our sponsor will not be responsible to the extent of any liability for such third-party claims. We have not independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and believe that our sponsor’s only assets are our securities. We have not independently verified whether our sponsor has sufficient funds to satisfy its indemnity obligations and we have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations. We have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such indemnification obligations. We have not asked our sponsor to reserve for such obligations. As a result, if any such claims were successfully made against the trust account, the funds available for our initial business combination and redemptions could be reduced to less than $10.00 per share of Class A common stock. In such event, we may not be able to consummate our initial business combination, and our public shareholders would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of their shares of Class A common stock. In such event, we may not be able to complete our initial business combination, and you would receive such lesser amount per share in connection with any redemption of your public shares. None of our officers or directors will indemnify us for claims by third parties including, without limitation, claims by vendors and prospective target businesses.

Our independent directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders.26 Table of ContentsOur independent directors may decide not to enforce the indemnification obligations of our sponsor, resulting in a reduction in the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders.

In the event that the proceeds in the trust account are reduced below the lesser of: (1) $10.00 per public share; or (2) the actual amount per share held in the trust account as of the date of the liquidation of the trust account, if less than $10.00 per share due to reductions in the value of the trust assets, in each case net of permitted withdrawals, and our sponsor asserts that it is unable to satisfy its obligations or that it has no indemnification obligations related to a particular claim, our independent directors would determine whether to take legal action against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations. While we currently expect that our independent directors would take legal action on our behalf against our sponsor to enforce its indemnification obligations to us, it is possible that our independent directors in exercising their business judgment may choose not to do so in certain instances. For example, the cost of such legal action may be deemed by the independent directors to be too high relative to the amount recoverable or the independent directors may determine that a favorable outcome is not likely. If our independent directors choose not to enforce these indemnification obligations, the amount of funds in the trust account available for distribution to our public stockholders may be reduced below $10.00 per share.

If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, a bankruptcy court may seek to recover such proceeds, and the members of our board of directors may be viewed as having breached their fiduciary duties to our creditors, thereby exposing the members of our board of directors and us to claims of punitive damages.

If, after we distribute the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, any distributions received by stockholders could be viewed under applicable debtor/creditor and/or bankruptcy laws as either a “preferential transfer” or a “fraudulent conveyance.” As a result, a bankruptcy court could seek to recover some or all amounts received by our stockholders. In addition, our board of directors may be viewed as having breached its fiduciary duty to our creditors and/or having acted in bad faith by paying public stockholders from the trust account prior to addressing the claims of creditors, thereby exposing itself and us to claims of punitive damages.

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If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the claims of creditors in such proceeding may have priority over the claims of our stockholders and the per share amount that would otherwise be received by our stockholders in connection with our liquidation may be reduced.

If, before distributing the proceeds in the trust account to our public stockholders, we file a bankruptcy petition or an involuntary bankruptcy petition is filed against us that is not dismissed, the proceeds held in the trust account could be subject to applicable bankruptcy law, and may be included in our bankruptcy estate and subject to the claims of third parties with priority over the claims of our stockholders. To the extent any bankruptcy claims deplete the trust account, the per share amount that would otherwise be received by our public stockholders in connection with our liquidation would be reduced.

We may be subject to a 1% U.S. federal excise tax in connection with redemptions of our Class A common stock.

On August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IR Act”) was signed into law. The IR Act provides for, among other things, a 1% U.S. federal excise tax on certain repurchases (including redemptions) of stock by publicly traded U.S. corporations after December 31, 2022. The excise tax is imposed on the repurchasing corporation itself, not its stockholders from whom the shares are repurchased (although it may reduce the amount of cash distributable in a current or subsequent redemption). The amount of the excise tax is 1% of the fair market value of any shares repurchased by the repurchasing corporation during a taxable year, which may be potentially netted by the fair market value of certain new stock issuances by the repurchasing corporation during the same taxable year. The amount of the excise tax is generally 1% of any positive difference between the fair market value of any shares repurchased by the repurchasing corporation during a taxable year and the fair market value of certain new stock issuances by the repurchasing corporation during the same taxable year. In addition, a number of exceptions apply to this excise tax. The U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “Treasury”) has been given authority to provide regulations and other guidance to carry out, and prevent the abuse or avoidance of, this excise tax.

On December 27, 2022, the Treasury published Notice 2023-2, which provided clarification on some aspects of the application of the excise tax.27 Table of ContentsOn December 27, 2022, the Treasury published Notice 2023-2, which provided clarification on some aspects of the application of the excise tax. The notice generally provides that if a publicly traded U.S. corporation completely liquidates and dissolves, distributions in such complete liquidation and other distributions by such corporation in the same taxable year in which the final distribution in complete liquidation and dissolution is made are not subject to the excise tax.

Because any such excise tax would be payable by us and not by the redeeming holder, it could cause a reduction in the value of our Class A common stock, cash available with which to effectuate a business combination or cash available for distribution in a subsequent liquidation. Whether and to what extent we would be subject to the excise tax in connection with an initial business combination will depend on a number of factors, including (i) the structure of the initial business combination, (ii) the fair market value of the redemptions and repurchases in connection with the initial business combination, (iii) the nature and amount of any “PIPE” or other equity issuances in connection with the initial business combination (or any other equity issuances within the same taxable year of the initial business combination) and (iv) the content of any subsequent regulations, clarifications, and other guidance issued by the Treasury. Whether and to what extent we would be subject to the excise tax in connection with a business combination will depend on a number of factors, including (i) the structure of the business combination, (ii) the fair market value of the redemptions and repurchases in connection with the business combination, (iii) the nature and amount of any “PIPE” or other equity issuances in connection with the business combination (or any other equity issuances within the same taxable year of the business combination) and (iv) the content of any subsequent regulations, clarifications, and other guidance issued by the Treasury. However, to mitigate this uncertainty, any funds held in the trust account prior to the termination of such account, including any interest thereon, will not be used to pay for any excise tax liabilities with respect to any redemptions of our Class A common stock, prior to or in connection with an extension of the completion window, an initial business combination or our liquidation.

Changes in laws, regulations, or rules, or a failure to comply with any laws, regulations, or rules, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, investments and results of operations.Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our initial business combination, and results of operations.

We are subject to laws, regulations and rules enacted by national, regional and local governments and Nasdaq. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC, Nasdaq and other legal or regulatory requirements. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC and other legal requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws, regulations and rules may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws and regulations may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws, regulations or rules and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. Those laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations or rules, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including its ability to consummate our initial business combination, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our ability to negotiate and complete our business combination, and results of operations.

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On January 24, 2024, the SEC adopted final rules (the “2024 SPAC Rules”) relating to, among other items, enhancing disclosures in initial business combination transactions involving SPACs and private operating companies; amending the financial statement requirements applicable to transactions involving shell companies; enhancing disclosure requirements related to projections, including requiring disclosure of all material bases of the projections and all material assumptions underlying the projections; increasing the potential liability of certain participants in proposed initial business combination transactions; and the extent to which SPACs could become subject to regulation under the Investment Company Act. The 2024 SPAC Rules will become effective July 1, 2024. In the event our initial business combination has not been consummated by such date, such rules may materially adversely affect our ability to consummate our initial business combination and may increase the costs and time related thereto.

See also “—We may be subject to a 1% U.S. federal excise tax in connection with redemptions of our Class A Common stock” and “—If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.”

If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which may make it difficult for us to complete our initial business combination.

If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, our activities may be restricted, including, without limitation, restrictions on the nature of our investments, restrictions on the issuance of securities, and restrictions on the enforceability of agreements entered into by us, each of which may make it difficult for us to complete a business combination. In addition, we may have imposed upon us burdensome requirements, including, without limitation, registration as an investment company with the SEC (which may be impractical and would require significant changes in, among other things, our capital structure); adoption of a specific form of corporate structure; and reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy and disclosure requirements and compliance with other rules and regulations that we are currently not subject to.

In order not to be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, unless we can qualify for an exclusion, we must ensure that we are engaged primarily in a business other than investing, reinvesting or trading in securities and that our activities do not include investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading “investment securities” constituting more than 40% of our total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. Our business is to identify and complete a business combination and thereafter to operate the post-transaction business or assets for the long term. We do not plan to buy businesses or assets with a view to resale or profit from their resale. We do not plan to buy unrelated businesses or assets or to be a passive investor.

It is possible that a claim could be made that we have been operating as an unregistered investment company. As a result, it is possible that a claim could be made that we have been operating as an unregistered investment company. If we were deemed to be an investment company for purposes of the Investment Company Act, we might be forced to abandon our efforts to complete an initial business combination and instead be required to liquidate. If we are required to liquidate, our investors would not be able to realize the benefits of owning stock in a successor operating business, including the potential appreciation in the value of our stock following such a transaction, and our warrants would expire worthless.

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We do not believe that our principal activities currently subject us to the Investment Company Act. To this end, from the time beginning with the consummation of our IPO, the proceeds held in the trust account have been invested only in United States “government securities” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(16) of the Investment Company Act having a maturity of 185 days or less or in money market funds meeting certain conditions under Rule 2a-7 promulgated under the Investment Company Act which invest only in direct U.S. government treasury obligations. Pursuant to the trust agreement, the trustee is not permitted to invest in other securities or assets. By restricting the investment of the proceeds to these instruments and by subsequently holding all funds in the trust account in cash, which may include demand deposit accounts (as described in the following paragraph), and by having a business plan targeted at acquiring and growing businesses for the long-term (rather than on buying and selling businesses in the manner of a merchant bank or private equity fund), we do not believe we are an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. By restricting the investment of the proceeds to these instruments and by subsequently holding all funds in the trust account in cash (as described in the following paragraph), and by having a business plan targeted at acquiring and growing businesses for the long-term (rather than on buying and selling businesses in the manner of a merchant bank or private equity fund), we do not believe we are an “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act. The IPO was not intended for persons seeking a return on investments in government securities or investment securities. The trust account is intended as a holding place for funds pending the earliest to occur of: (i) the completion of our primary business objective, which is a business combination; (ii) the redemption of any public shares properly submitted in connection with a stockholder vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window; and (iii) absent a business combination, our return of the funds held in the trust account to our public stockholders as part of our redemption of the public shares. Because we have invested only in permitted instruments, we believe we are not an investment company. If we were deemed to be subject to the Investment Company Act, compliance with these additional regulatory burdens would require additional expenses for which we have not allotted funds and may hinder our ability to consummate our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share on the liquidation of our trust account and our warrants will expire worthless. In certain circumstances, our public stockholders may receive less than $10.00 per share on the redemption of their shares if we are unable to complete our initial business combination within the completion window.

To mitigate the risk of us being deemed to have been operating as an unregistered investment company (including under the subjective test of Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended) all funds in the trust account are held and will be held in cash (which may include demand deposit accounts) until the earlier of consummation of our business combination or liquidation.To mitigate the risk of us being deemed to have been operating as an unregistered investment company (including under the subjective test of Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended), on February 17, 2023, the 24-month anniversary of the closing date of our registration statement relating to the IPO, we instructed the trustee with respect to the trust account, to liquidate the US government securities or money market funds held in the trust account and thereafter to hold all funds in the trust account in cash (which may include demand deposit accounts) until the earlier of consummation of our business combination or liquidation. Furthermore, such cash (which may include demand deposit accounts) is held in bank accounts, which exceed federally insured limits as guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”). Furthermore, such cash is held in bank accounts, which exceed federally insured limits as guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”). While we have only placed our trust account deposits with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., only a small portion of the funds in our trust account will be guaranteed by the FDIC.

We may issue additional shares of Class A common stock or preferred stock to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination. We may also issue shares of Class A common stock upon the conversion of the Class B common stock at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions described herein. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our stockholders and likely present other risks.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of up to 500,000,000 shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, and 100,000,000 shares of Class B common stock, par value $0.0001 per share and 1,000,000 shares of undesignated preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share. There are 362,000,000 and 65,500,000 authorized but unissued shares of Class A and Class B common stock, respectively, available for issuance, which amount takes into account shares reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding warrants but not upon the conversion of the Class B common stock. Shares of Class B common stock are automatically convertible into shares of our Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination, initially at a one-for-one ratio but subject to adjustment as set forth herein. There are no shares of preferred stock issued and outstanding.

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We may issue a substantial number of additional shares of Class A common stock, and may issue shares of preferred stock, in order to complete our initial business combination or under an employee incentive plan after completion of our initial business combination (although our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we may not issue additional securities that can vote on amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or on our initial business combination or that would entitle holders thereof to receive funds from the trust account). We may also issue shares upon conversion of the Class B common stock at a ratio greater than one-to-one at the time of our initial business combination as a result of the anti-dilution provisions described herein. However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides, among other things, that prior to our initial business combination, we may not issue additional shares of capital stock that would entitle the holders thereof to (1) receive funds from the trust account or (2) vote on any initial business combination. The issuance of additional shares of common or preferred stock:

We may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services.33 Table of ContentsWe may only be able to complete one business combination with the proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants, which will cause us to be solely dependent on a single business which may have a limited number of products or services. This lack of diversification may materially negatively impact our operations and profitability.

As of December 31, 2023, we had access to approximately $594.1 million in the trust account that we may use to complete our initial business combination (which takes into account $17.9 million of deferred underwriting commissions being held in the trust account, does not take into account approximately $10 million from the trust account to redeem shares in connection with the February Extension Special Meeting and assumes no further redemptions, which could be significant). We may effectuate our initial business combination with a single target business or multiple target businesses simultaneously or within a short period of time. However, we may not be able to effectuate our initial business combination with more than one target business because of various factors, including the existence of complex accounting issues and the requirement that we prepare and file pro forma financial statements with the SEC that present operating results and the financial condition of several target businesses as if they had been operated on a combined basis. By completing our initial business combination with only a single entity our lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive, geographic and regulatory risks. Further, we would not be able to diversify our operations or benefit from the possible spreading of risks or offsetting of losses, unlike other entities which may have the resources to complete several business combinations in different industries or different areas of a single industry. Accordingly, the prospects for our success may be:

This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive, geographic and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.This lack of diversification may subject us to numerous economic, competitive and regulatory risks, any or all of which may have a substantial adverse impact upon the particular industry in which we may operate subsequent to our initial business combination.

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We do not have a specified maximum redemption threshold. The absence of such a redemption threshold may make it possible for us to complete our initial business combination with which a substantial majority of our stockholders do not agree.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide a specified maximum redemption threshold, except that in no event will we redeem our public shares in an amount that would cause our net tangible assets to be less than $5,000,001 (such that we do not then become subject to the SEC’s “penny stock” rules) or any greater net tangible asset or cash requirement which may be contained in the agreement relating to our initial business combination. As a result, we may be able to complete our initial business combination even though a substantial majority of our public stockholders do not agree with the transaction and have redeemed their shares or, if we seek stockholder approval of our initial business combination and do not conduct redemptions in connection with our initial business combination pursuant to the tender offer rules, have entered into privately negotiated agreements to sell their shares to our sponsor, officers, directors, advisors or any of their respective affiliates. In the event the aggregate cash consideration we would be required to pay for all shares of common stock that are validly submitted for redemption plus any amount required to satisfy cash conditions pursuant to the terms of the proposed business combination exceed the aggregate amount of cash available to us, we will not complete the business combination or redeem any shares, all shares of common stock submitted for redemption will be returned to the holders thereof, and we instead may search for an alternate business combination.

Certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that relate to our pre-business combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of not less than 65% of our common stock, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check companies.35 Table of ContentsCertain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that relate to our pre-business combination activity (and corresponding provisions of the agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account) may be amended with the approval of holders of not less than 65% of our common stock, which is a lower amendment threshold than that of some other blank check companies. It may be easier for us, therefore, to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and the trust agreement to facilitate the completion of an initial business combination that some of our stockholders may not support.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that any of its provisions (other than amendments relating to the appointment of directors, which require the approval by a majority of the Class B common stock then outstanding) related to pre-business combination activity (including the requirement to fund the trust account and not release such amounts except in specified circumstances and to provide redemption rights to public stockholders as described herein) may be amended if approved by holders of at least 65% of our common stock, and corresponding provisions of the trust agreement governing the release of funds from our trust account may be amended if approved by holders of 65% of our common stock. In all other instances, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that it may be amended by holders of a majority of our common stock, subject to applicable provisions of the DGCL, or applicable stock exchange rules. We may not issue additional securities that can vote on amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or on our initial business combination. Our initial stockholders, who beneficially own 37.7% of our common stock, may participate in any vote to amend our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and/or trust agreement and have the discretion to vote in any manner they choose. As a result, we may be able to amend the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation which governs our pre-business combination behavior more easily than some other blank check companies, and this may increase our ability to complete our initial business combination with which you do not agree. Our stockholders may pursue remedies against us for any breach of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.

Our sponsor, officers and directors have agreed, pursuant to a written agreement, that they will not propose any amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window, unless we provide our public stockholders with the opportunity to redeem their shares of Class A common stock upon approval of any such amendment at a per-share price, payable in cash, equal to the aggregate amount then on deposit in the trust account, divided by the number of then outstanding public shares. These agreements are contained in letter agreements that we have entered into with each of our sponsor, officers and directors. Our stockholders are not parties to, or third-party beneficiaries of, these agreements and, as a result, will not have the ability to pursue remedies against our sponsor, officers or directors for any breach of these agreements. As a result, in the event of a breach, our stockholders would need to pursue a stockholder derivative action, subject to applicable law.

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We may be unable to obtain additional financing to complete our initial business combination or to fund the operations and growth of a target business, which could compel us to restructure or abandon a particular business combination.

Although we believe that the funds available in our trust account will be sufficient to allow us to complete our initial business combination, because we have not yet held a stockholder vote on the proposed business combination, we cannot say so for certain.Although we have no commitments as of the date of this Annual Report to issue any notes or other debt securities, or to otherwise incur outstanding debt following the IPO, we may choose to incur substantial debt to complete our initial business combination. If the funds available in our trust account prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from stockholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional financing (including from M. If the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants prove to be insufficient, either because of the size of our initial business combination, the depletion of the available net proceeds in search of a target business, the obligation to redeem for cash a significant number of shares from stockholders who elect redemption in connection with our initial business combination or the terms of negotiated transactions to purchase shares in connection with our initial business combination, we may be required to seek additional financing (including from M. Klein and Company) or to abandon the proposed business combination. We cannot assure you that such financing will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. M. Klein and Company is not obligated to provide, or seek, any such financing or, except as expressly set forth herein, to provide any other services to us. To the extent that additional financing proves to be unavailable when needed to complete our initial business combination, we would be compelled to either restructure the transaction or abandon that particular business combination and seek an alternative target business candidate. In addition, even if we do not need additional financing to complete our initial business combination, we may require such financing to fund the operations or growth of the target business. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of the target business. None of our officers, directors or stockholders is required to provide any financing to us in connection with or after our initial business combination. If we are unable to complete our initial business combination, our public stockholders may receive only approximately $10.00 per share, or less in certain circumstances, on the liquidation of our trust account, and our warrants will expire worthless.

Our initial business combination and our structure thereafter may not be tax-efficient to our stockholders and warrant holders.​37 Table of ContentsOur initial business combination and our structure thereafter may not be tax-efficient to our stockholders and warrant holders. As a result of our business combination, our tax obligations may be more complex, burdensome and uncertain.

Although we will attempt to structure our initial business combination in a tax-efficient manner, tax structuring considerations are complex, the relevant facts and law are uncertain and may change, and we may prioritize commercial and other considerations over tax considerations. For example, in connection with our initial business combination and subject to any requisite stockholder approval, we may structure our business combination in a manner that requires stockholders and/or warrant holders to recognize gain or income for tax purposes, effect a business combination with a target company in another jurisdiction, or reincorporate in a different jurisdiction (including, but not limited to, the jurisdiction in which the target company or business is located). We do not intend to make any cash distributions to stockholders or warrant holders to pay taxes in connection with our business combination or thereafter. Accordingly, a stockholder or a warrant holder may need to satisfy any liability resulting from our initial business combination with cash from its own funds or by selling all or a portion of the shares received. In addition, stockholders and warrant holders may also be subject to additional income, withholding or other taxes with respect to their ownership of us after our initial business combination.

In addition, we may effect a business combination with a target company that has business operations outside of the United States, and possibly, business operations in multiple jurisdictions. If we effect such a business combination, we could be subject to significant income, withholding and other tax obligations in a number of jurisdictions with respect to income, operations and subsidiaries related to those jurisdictions. Due to the complexity of tax obligations and filings in other jurisdictions, we may have a heightened risk related to audits or examinations by U.S. federal, state, local and non-U.S. taxing authorities. This additional complexity and risk could have an adverse effect on our after-tax profitability and financial condition.

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Risks Relating to Our Securities

Nasdaq may delist our securities from trading on its exchange, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.

Our units, Class A common stock and warrants are listed on Nasdaq. We cannot assure you that our securities will be, or will continue to be, listed on Nasdaq in the future or prior to our initial business combination. In order to continue listing our securities on Nasdaq prior to our initial business combination, we must maintain certain financial, distribution and stock price levels. In general, we must maintain a minimum number of holders of our securities and certain financial, distribution and stock price levels. In general, we must maintain a minimum number of holders of our securities. Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements in order to maintain the listing of our securities on Nasdaq We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet those continued listing requirements at that time. Additionally, in connection with our initial business combination, we will be required to demonstrate compliance with the NYSE’s initial listing requirements, which are more rigorous than the NYSE’s continued listing requirements, in order to continue to maintain the listing of our securities on the NYSE.

Nasdaq rule IM-5101-2 requires that a special purpose acquisition company such as Churchill must complete one or more business combinations within 36 months of the effectiveness of its IPO registration statement, or such shorter period that the Company specifies in its registration statement, being February 11, 2024 (the “Nasdaq Deadline”).

On March 1, 2024, we received a written notice (the “Notice”) from the Listing Qualifications Department of the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq Staff”) indicating that, due to our non-compliance with Nasdaq rule IM-5101-2, unless we timely request a hearing (“Hearing Request”) before the Nasdaq Hearings Panel (the “Panel”) by March 8, 2024, trading of our securities on Nasdaq would be suspended at the opening of business on March 12, 2024. The Notice also provided that if we do not comply with the foregoing requirement, Nasdaq Staff will issue a Staff Delisting Determination under Rule 5810 to delist our securities and a Form 25-NSE will be filed with the SEC, which will remove our securities from listing and registration on Nasdaq.

On March 8, 2024, we submitted a Hearing Request with the Panel in accordance with the Notice and pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Nasdaq Listing Rule 5800 Series. The Hearing Request will stay the suspension and delisting of our securities and the filing of the Form 25-NSE, pending the Panel’s decision.

Notwithstanding the Hearing Request, there can be no assurance that we will be able to satisfy Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, that our securities will not be delisted from Nasdaq or that the Panel will not affirm the Staff’s delisting determination during the appeal process. As part of Nasdaq’s ongoing review or in response to any submissions we have made or will make, Nasdaq may identify additional deficiencies under the Nasdaq listing rules.

The business combination was not consummated by the Nasdaq Deadline. As such, Nasdaq may delist our securities, which could limit investors’ ability to transact in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions, further outlined below.

Given the above, we cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq, including prior to the business combination.

If Nasdaq delists any of our securities from trading on its exchange, including as a result of the failure to complete an initial business combination prior to the Nasdaq Deadline, and we are not able to list such securities on another national securities exchange, we would likely lose any active trading market for our securities, as our securities may then only be traded on one of the over-the-counter markets, if at all. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:

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The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because our units, Class A common stock and warrants are listed on Nasdaq, our units, Class A common stock and warrants qualify as covered securities under such statute.” Because our units, Class A common stock and warrants are listed on the NYSE, our units, Class A common stock and warrants qualify as covered securities under such statute. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, other than the State of Idaho, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under such statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities. Further, if we were no longer listed on the NYSE, our securities would not qualify as covered securities under such statute and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.

You will not be entitled to protections normally afforded to investors of many other blank check companies.

Since the net proceeds of the IPO and the sale of the private placement warrants are intended to be used to complete an initial business combination with a target business, we may be deemed to be a “blank check” company under the U.S. securities laws. However, because we have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 and filed a Current Report on Form 8-K, including an audited balance sheet of our company demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. However, because we have net tangible assets in excess of $5,000,000 and filed a Current Reports on Form 8-K, including an audited balance sheet of our company demonstrating this fact, we are exempt from rules promulgated by the SEC to protect investors in blank check companies, such as Rule 419. Accordingly, investors will not be afforded the benefits or protections of those rules. Among other things, this means our units will be immediately tradable and we will have a longer period of time to complete our initial business combination than do companies subject to Rule 419. Moreover, if the IPO were subject to Rule 419, that rule would prohibit the release of any interest earned on funds held in the trust account to us unless and until the funds in the trust account were released to us in connection with our completion of our initial business combination.

If you or a “group” of stockholders are deemed to hold in excess of 15% of our Class A common stock, you will lose the ability to redeem all such shares in excess of 15% of our Class A common stock.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that a public stockholder, together with any affiliate of such stockholder or any other person with whom such stockholder is acting in concert or as a “group” (as defined under Section 13 of the Exchange Act), will be restricted from seeking redemption rights with respect to more than an aggregate of 15% of the shares sold in the IPO, without our prior consent, which we refer to as the “Excess Shares.Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against directors, officers and employees for breach of fiduciary duty and other similar actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel. ” However, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not restrict our stockholders’ ability to vote all of their shares (including Excess Shares) for or against our initial business combination. Your inability to redeem the Excess Shares will reduce your influence over our ability to complete our initial business combination and you could suffer a material loss on your investment in us if you sell Excess Shares in open market transactions. Additionally, you will not receive redemption distributions with respect to the Excess Shares if we complete our initial business combination. And as a result, you will continue to hold the Excess Shares and, in order to dispose of such shares, would be required to sell your Excess Shares in open market transactions, potentially at a loss.

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Our stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against us to the extent of distributions received by them upon redemption of their shares.

Under the DGCL, stockholders may be held liable for claims by third parties against a corporation to the extent of distributions received by them in a dissolution. The pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window may be considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law. If a corporation complies with certain procedures set forth in Section 280 of the DGCL intended to ensure that it makes reasonable provision for all claims against it, including a 60-day notice period during which any third-party claims can be brought against the corporation, a 90-day period during which the corporation may reject any claims brought, and an additional 150-day waiting period before any liquidating distributions are made to stockholders, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. However, it is our intention to redeem our shares of Class A common stock as soon as reasonably possible following the last day of the completion window in the event we do not complete an initial business combination and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with the foregoing procedures. However, it is our intention to redeem our public shares as soon as reasonably possible following the 24th month or 27th month, as applicable, from the closing of the IPO in the event we do not complete our initial business combination and, therefore, we do not intend to comply with the foregoing procedures.

Because we do not intend to comply with Section 280, Section 281(b) of the DGCL requires us to adopt a plan, based on facts known to us at such time that will provide for our payment of all existing and pending claims or claims that may be potentially brought against us within the 10 years following our dissolution. However, because we are a blank check company, rather than an operating company, and our operations will be limited to searching for prospective target businesses to acquire, the only likely claims to arise would be from our vendors (such as lawyers, investment bankers, consultants, etc.) or prospective target businesses. If our plan of distribution complies with Section 281(b) of the DGCL, any liability of stockholders with respect to a liquidating distribution is limited to the lesser of such stockholder’s pro rata share of the claim or the amount distributed to the stockholder, and any liability of the stockholder would likely be barred after the third anniversary of the dissolution. We cannot assure you that we will properly assess all claims that may be potentially brought against us. As such, our stockholders could potentially be liable for any claims to the extent of distributions received by them (but no more) and any liability of our stockholders may extend beyond the third anniversary of such date. Furthermore, if the pro rata portion of our trust account distributed to our public stockholders upon the redemption of our public shares in the event we do not complete our initial business combination within the completion window is not considered a liquidating distribution under Delaware law and such redemption distribution is deemed to be unlawful, then pursuant to Section 174 of the DGCL, the statute of limitations for claims of creditors could then be six years after the unlawful redemption distribution, instead of three years, as in the case of a liquidating distribution.

We will not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after we consummate our initial business combination and you will not be entitled to any of the corporate protections provided by such a meeting.40 Table of ContentsWe may not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after we consummate our initial business combination and you will not be entitled to any of the corporate protections provided by such a meeting.

We will not hold an annual meeting of stockholders until after we consummate our initial business combination. Our Class B stockholders are entitled to elect all of our directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination and have elected to do so by written consent without a meeting. Moreover, our Class B stockholders are entitled to elect all of our directors prior to the completion of our initial business combination and may elect to do so by written consent without a meeting.

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We have not registered the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time, and such registration may not be in place when an investor desires to exercise warrants, thus precluding such investor from being able to exercise its warrants except on a “cashless basis” and potentially causing such warrants to expire worthless.

We have not registered the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants under the Securities Act or any state securities laws at this time. However, under the terms of the warrant agreement, we have agreed that as soon as practicable, but in no event later than 15 business days after the closing of our initial business combination, we will use our reasonable best efforts to file with the SEC, and within 60 business days following our initial business combination to have declared effective, a registration statement covering the issuance of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and to maintain a current prospectus relating to those shares of Class A common stock until the warrants expire or are redeemed. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so if, for example, any facts or events arise which represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement or prospectus, the financial statements contained or incorporated by reference therein are not current, complete or correct or the SEC issues a stop order. If the shares issuable upon exercise of the warrants are not registered under the Securities Act, we will be required to permit holders to exercise their warrants on a cashless basis. However, no warrant will be exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, and we will not be obligated to issue any shares to holders seeking to exercise their warrants, unless the issuance of the shares upon such exercise is registered or qualified under the securities laws of the state of the exercising holder or an exemption from registration or qualification is available. Notwithstanding the above, if our Class A common stock is at the time of any exercise of a warrant not listed on a national securities exchange such that it satisfies the definition of a “covered security” under Section 18(b)(1) of the Securities Act, we may, at our option, require holders of public warrants who exercise their warrants to do so on a “cashless basis” in accordance with Section 3(a)(9) of the Securities Act and, in the event we so elect, we will not be required to file or maintain in effect a registration statement, but we will use our reasonable best efforts to register or qualify the shares under applicable blue sky laws to the extent an exemption is not available. In no event will we be required to net cash settle any warrant, or issue securities or other compensation in exchange for the warrants in the event that we are unable to register or qualify the shares underlying the warrants under applicable state securities laws and no exemption is available. If the issuance of the shares upon exercise of the warrants is not so registered or qualified or exempt from registration or qualification, the holder of such warrant shall not be entitled to exercise such warrant and such warrant may have no value and expire worthless. In such event, holders who acquired their warrants as part of a purchase of units will have paid the full unit purchase price solely for the shares of Class A common stock included in the units. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying shares of Class A common stock for sale under all applicable state securities laws.

The grant of registration rights to our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees and the future exercise of such rights may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

Pursuant to an agreement entered into concurrently with the issuance and sale of the securities in the IPO, our initial stockholders and their permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of their founder shares after those shares convert to shares of our Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination. In addition, our sponsor and its permitted transferees can demand that we register the resale of the private placement warrants and the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of the private placement warrants, and holders of warrants that may be issued upon conversion of working capital loans may demand that we register the resale of such warrants or the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of such warrants. We will bear the cost of registering these securities. The registration and availability of such a significant number of securities for trading in the public market may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A common stock.

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Our initial stockholders control the election of our board of directors until consummation of our initial business combination and hold a substantial interest in us. As a result, they will elect all of our directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination and may exert a substantial influence on actions requiring a stockholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support. Similarly, following the consummation of our initial business combination, one or more shareholders of the target may have a substantial interest in the combined company and may require us to enter into agreements or other arrangements with respect to board composition and for designation rights.

Our initial stockholders own 37.7% of our outstanding common stock. In addition, the founder shares, all of which are held by our initial stockholders, entitle the holders to elect all of our directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination, provided, however, that with respect to the election of directors in connection with a meeting of the stockholders of the Company in which a business combination is submitted to the stockholders of the Company for approval, holders of the Class A common stock and holders of the Class B common stock, voting together as a single class, shall have the exclusive right to vote for the election of directors. Holders of our public shares will, other than as provided in the preceding sentence, have no right to vote on the election of directors prior to the consummation of our initial business combination. These provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation may only be amended by a majority of the Class B common stock then outstanding. As a result, you will not have any influence over the election of directors prior to our initial business combination other than at a stockholders’ meeting during which a business combination is submitted to the stockholders for approval, as described above.

Neither our initial stockholders nor, to our knowledge, any of our officers or directors, have any current intention to purchase additional securities, other than as disclosed in this Annual Report. Factors that would be considered in making such additional purchases would include consideration of the current trading price of our Class A common stock. In addition, as a result of their substantial ownership in our company, our initial stockholders may exert a substantial influence on other actions requiring a stockholder vote, potentially in a manner that you do not support, including amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and approval of major corporate transactions. If our initial stockholders purchase any additional shares of common stock in the aftermarket or in privately negotiated transactions, this would increase their influence over these actions. Accordingly, our initial stockholders will exert significant influence over actions requiring a stockholder vote.

Our sponsor contributed $25,000, or approximately $0.0007 per founder share, and, accordingly, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution from the purchase of our Class A common stock.

Our sponsor acquired the founder shares at a nominal price, significantly contributing to the dilution of holders of our Class A common stock. This dilution would increase to the extent that the anti-dilution provisions of the Class B common stock result in the issuance of Class A shares on a greater than one-to-one basis upon conversion of the Class B common stock at the time of our initial business combination and would become exacerbated to the extent that public stockholders seek redemptions from the trust. In addition, because of the anti-dilution rights of the founder shares, any equity or equity-linked securities issued or deemed issued in connection with our initial business combination would be disproportionately dilutive to our Class A common stock.

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The purchase price paid by our sponsor for the founder shares may significantly dilute value of our public shares in the event we consummate an initial business combination, and our sponsor may make a substantial profit on its investment in us in the event we consummate an initial business combination, even if the trading price of our common stock were to materially decline following completion of an initial business combination.

Our sponsor paid an aggregate purchase price of $25,000 for the founder shares, or approximately $0.0007 per share. Additionally, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 32,600,000 private placement warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant, for an aggregate purchase price of $32,600,000. Michael Klein, Andrew Frankle, Bonnie Jonas, Mark Klein, Karen G. Mills, Stephen Murphy and Alan M. Schrager, all of whom are directors of the Company, each has an economic interest in the founder shares and private placement warrants purchased by our sponsor as a result of his or her membership interest in our sponsor. Schrager, all of whom are directors of the company, each has an economic interest in the founder shares and private placement warrants purchased by our sponsor as a result of his or her direct or indirect membership interest in our sponsor. Even if following a business combination, the trading price of our common stock or shares of the post-combination company significantly declines, not giving effect to any lock-up or vesting terms applicable to its founder shares or to securities received by our sponsor in respect of its founder shares in connection with our initial business combination, our sponsor, as well as our directors and officers that have an economic interest in our sponsor, would be able to make significant profit on its investment in us even if the trading price of our common stock or shares of the post-combination company at such time is substantially less than $10.00 per share. Accordingly, our sponsor, as well as our directors and officers that have an economic interest in our sponsor, may be more willing to pursue an initial business combination with a riskier, weaker-performing or less-established target business than would be the case if our sponsor had paid the same per share price for the founder shares as our public stockholders paid for their public shares.

We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of public warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the warrants could be converted into cash or stock (at a ratio different than initially provided), the exercise period could be shortened and the number of shares of our Class A common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.

Our warrants are issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the public warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash or stock (at a ratio different than initially provided), shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of our common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant. Our initial stockholders may purchase public warrants with the intention of reducing the number of public warrants outstanding or to vote such warrants on any matters submitted to warrantholders for approval, including amending the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to the interests of the registered holders of public warrants. While our initial stockholders have no current commitments, plans or intentions to engage in such transactions and have not formulated any terms or conditions for such transactions, there is no limit on the number of our public warrants that our initial stockholders may purchase and it is not currently known how many public warrants, if any, our initial stockholders may hold at the time of our initial business combination or at any other time during which the terms of the public warrants may be proposed to be amended.

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We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.

We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the closing price of our Class A common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to: (1) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so (2) sell your warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants; or (3) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants.

Our warrants and founder shares may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A common stock and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.44 Table of ContentsOur warrants and founder shares may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A common stock and make it more difficult to effectuate our initial business combination.

We issued warrants to purchase 27,600,000 shares of our Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per whole share (subject to adjustment as provided herein), as part of the units offered in the IPO. Simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, we also issued in a private placement an aggregate of 32,600,000 private placement warrants, each exercisable to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein. Our initial stockholders currently hold 34,500,000 founder shares. The founder shares are convertible into shares of Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment as set forth herein. In addition, if our sponsor, an affiliate of our sponsor or certain of our officers and directors make any working capital loans, up to $1,500,000 of such loans may be converted into warrants, at the price of $1.00 per warrant, at the option of the lender. Such warrants would be identical to the private placement warrants.

To the extent we issue shares of Class A common stock to effectuate a business transaction, the potential for the issuance of a substantial number of additional shares of Class A common stock upon exercise of these warrants or conversion rights could make us a less attractive acquisition vehicle to a target business. Any such issuance will increase the number of outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and reduce the value of the Class A common stock issued to complete the business transaction. Therefore, our warrants and founder shares may make it more difficult to effectuate a business combination or increase the cost of acquiring the target business.

The private placement warrants are identical to the warrants sold as part of the units in the IPO except that, so long as they are held by our sponsor or its permitted transferees: (1) they will not be redeemable by us; (2) they (including the Class A common stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants) may not, subject to certain limited exceptions, be transferred, assigned or sold by our sponsor until 30 days after the completion of our initial business combination; (3) they may be exercised by the holders on a cashless basis; and (4) the holders thereof (including with respect to the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of these warrants) are entitled to registration rights. Pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement, upon the completion of the business combination, our sponsor will forfeit to us a certain number of its private placement warrants for no consideration.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may inhibit a takeover of us, which could limit the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for our Class A common stock and could entrench management.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. These provisions include three-year director terms and the ability of the board of directors to designate the terms of and issue new series of preferred shares, which may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities.

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Section 203 of the DGCL affects the ability of an “interested stockholder” to engage in certain business combinations, for a period of three years following the time that the stockholder becomes an “interested stockholder.” We elected in our certificate of incorporation not to be subject to Section 203 of the DGCL. Nevertheless, our certificate of incorporation contains provisions that have the same effect as Section 203 of the DGCL, except that it provides that affiliates of our sponsor and their transferees are not deemed to be “interested stockholders,” regardless of the percentage of our voting stock owned by them, and are therefore not subject to such restrictions. These charter provisions may limit the ability of third parties to acquire control of our company.

If we are unable to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and financial results.If we are unable to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and materially and adversely affect our business and financial results.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis. Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and prevent fraud.

In connection with the restatements of our previously issued audited balance sheet as of February 17, 2021 and our financial statements for the quarters ended March 31, 2021 and June 30, 2021, we previously identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, solely related to our accounting for complex financial instruments, as of December 31, 2021.

While our previous material weakness has been remediated, if we identify any new material weaknesses in the future, any such newly identified material weakness could limit our ability to prevent or detect a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements. In such case, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and our stock price may decline as a result. We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to avoid potential future material weaknesses.

Risks Relating to Our Management Team

Our officers and directors will allocate their time to other businesses thereby causing conflicts of interest in their determination as to how much time to devote to our affairs. This conflict of interest could have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination.

Our officers and directors are not required to, and will not, commit their full time to our affairs, which may result in a conflict of interest in allocating their time between our operations and our search for a business combination and their other responsibilities. We do not intend to have any full-time employees prior to the completion of our business combination. Each of our officers and directors is engaged in several other business endeavors for which he or she may be entitled to substantial compensation and our officers and directors are not obligated to contribute any specific number of hours per week to our affairs.

For example, Michael Klein, our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our Board of Directors, is the founder and managing partner of M. Klein and Company and acts as a strategic advisor to its clients. Mr. Klein has fiduciary duties to the other entities in which he serves as a director or officer, and will have no duty to offer acquisition opportunities to the Company unless presented to him solely in his capacity as an officer or director of the Company. Klein has fiduciary duties to the other entities in which serves as a director or officer, and will have no duty to offer acquisition opportunities to the Company unless presented to him solely in his capacity as an officer or director of the Company.

If our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs require them to devote substantial amounts of time to such affairs in excess of their current commitment levels, it could limit their ability to devote time to our affairs which may have a negative impact on our ability to complete our initial business combination. Please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance” and “—Conflicts of Interest” in Part III of this Annual Report for a discussion of our officers’ and directors’ other business affairs and potential conflicts of interest.

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We are dependent upon our officers and directors and their departure could adversely affect our ability to operate.

Our operations are dependent upon a relatively small group of individuals. We believe that our success depends on the continued service of our officers and directors, at least until we have completed our initial business combination. We do not have an employment agreement with, or key-man insurance on the life of any of our other directors or officers. The unexpected loss of the services of one or more of our directors or officers could have a detrimental effect on us.

Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination and to be successful thereafter will be dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel, some of whom may join us following our initial business combination. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post- combination business.

Our ability to successfully effect our initial business combination is dependent upon the efforts of our key personnel. The role of our key personnel in the target business, however, cannot presently be ascertained. Although some of our key personnel may remain with the target business in senior management or advisory positions following our initial business combination, we do not currently expect that any of them will do so. While we intend to closely scrutinize any individuals we engage after our initial business combination, we cannot assure you that our assessment of these individuals will prove to be correct. These individuals may be unfamiliar with the requirements of operating a company regulated by the SEC, which could cause us to have to expend time and resources helping them become familiar with such requirements.

In addition, the officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination.47 Table of ContentsIn addition, the officers and directors of an acquisition candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The departure of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business. The role of an acquisition candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the acquisition candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place. The loss of key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business.

Our key personnel may negotiate employment or consulting agreements with a target business in connection with a particular business combination, and a particular business combination may be conditioned on the retention or resignation of such key personnel. These agreements may cause our key personnel to have conflicts of interest in determining whether to proceed with a particular business combination. However, we do not expect that any of our key personnel will remain with us after the completion of our initial business combination.

Our key personnel may be able to remain with our company after the completion of our initial business combination only if they are able to negotiate employment or consulting agreements in connection with the business combination. Such negotiations would take place simultaneously with the negotiation of the business combination and could provide for such individuals to receive compensation in the form of cash payments and/or our securities for services they would render to us after the completion of the business combination. Such negotiations also could make such key personnel’s retention or resignation a condition to any such agreement. The personal and financial interests of such individuals may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business. However, we believe the ability of such individuals to remain with us after the completion of our initial business combination will not be the determining factor in our decision as to whether or not we will proceed with any potential business combination, as we do not expect that any of our key personnel will remain with us after the completion of our initial business combination. The determination as to whether any of our key personnel will remain with us will be made at the time of our initial business combination.

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We may have a limited ability to assess the management of a prospective target business and, as a result, may affect our initial business combination with a target business whose management may not have the skills, qualifications or abilities to manage a public company.

When evaluating the desirability of effecting our initial business combination with a prospective target business, our ability to assess the target business’s management may be limited due to a lack of time, resources or information. Our assessment of the capabilities of the target business’s management, therefore, may prove to be incorrect and such management may lack the skills, qualifications or abilities we suspected.

Should the target business’s management not possess the skills, qualifications or abilities necessary to manage a public company, the operations and profitability of the post-combination business may be negatively impacted. Accordingly, any stockholders or warrant holders who choose to remain a stockholder or warrant holder following our initial business combination could suffer a reduction in the value of their securities.

Such stockholders or warrant holders are unlikely to have a remedy for such reduction in value.

The officers and directors of an initial business combination candidate may resign upon completion of our initial business combination. The departure of a business combination target’s key personnel could negatively impact the operations and profitability of our post-combination business. The role of an initial business combination candidate’s key personnel upon the completion of our initial business combination cannot be ascertained at this time. Although we contemplate that certain members of an acquisition candidate’s management team will remain associated with the initial business combination candidate following our initial business combination, it is possible that members of the management of an acquisition candidate will not wish to remain in place. As a result, we may need to reconstitute the management team of the post-transaction company in connection with our initial business combination, which may adversely impact our ability to complete an initial business combination in a timely manner or at all.

Certain of our officers and directors are now, and all of them may in the future become, affiliated with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity or other transaction should be presented.48 Table of ContentsCertain of our officers and directors are now, and all of them may in the future become, affiliated with entities engaged in business activities similar to those intended to be conducted by us and, accordingly, may have conflicts of interest in determining to which entity a particular business opportunity or other transaction should be presented.

Until we consummate our initial business combination, we intend to engage in the business of identifying and combining with one or more businesses. Our sponsor and officers and directors are, or may in the future become, affiliated with entities (such as operating companies or investment vehicles) that are engaged in a similar business. We do not have employment contracts with our officers and directors that will limit their ability to work at other businesses. In addition, our sponsor, officers and directors may participate in the formation of, or become an officer or director of, any other blank check company prior to completion of our initial business combination. As a result, our sponsor, officers or directors could have conflicts of interest in determining whether to present business combination opportunities to us or to any other blank check company with which they may become involved. In addition, Mr. Klein and M. Klein and Company may have sponsored or formed other blank check companies similar to ours during the period in which we were seeking an initial business combination. Klein and Company may sponsor or form other blank check companies similar to ours during the period in which we are seeking an initial business combination. Any such companies may have presented conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target. Any such companies may present additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target. In particular, M. Klein and Company, Mr. Klein and the Strategic and Operating Partners are actively engaged in AltC Acquisition Corp. Klein and the Strategic Partners are actively engaged in AltC Acquisition Corp. , a special purpose acquisition corporation that completed its initial public offering in July 2021, and Churchill Capital Corp IX, a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company that is in the process of completing its initial public offering as of the date of this report. AltC Acquisition Corp., like us, may pursue initial business combination targets in any businesses or industries and has until July 12, 2024 to do so (absent an extension in accordance with its charter)., like us, may pursue initial business combination targets in any businesses or industries and have until December 18, 2023, May 17, 2023 and July 12, 2023, respectively, to do so (absent an extension in accordance with their charters). Any such companies, including AltC Acquisition Corp. and Churchill Capital Corp IX, may have presented or may present, as applicable, additional conflicts of interest in pursuing an acquisition target and may present additional conflicts of interest in completing our initial business combination.

As described in “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance — Conflicts of Interest” in Part III of this Annual Report, each of our officers and directors presently has, and any of them in the future may have additional, fiduciary, contractual or other obligations or duties to one or more other entities pursuant to which such officer or director is or will be required

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to present a business combination opportunity to such entities. Accordingly, if any of our officers or directors becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for one or more entities to which he or she has fiduciary, contractual or other obligations or duties, he or she will honor these obligations and duties to present such business combination opportunity to such entities first, and only present it to us if such entities reject the opportunity and he or she determines to present the opportunity to us. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential target business may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce our interest in any corporate opportunity offered to any director or officer unless (i) such opportunity is expressly offered to such person solely in his or her capacity as a director or officer of our company, (ii) such opportunity is one we are legally and contractually permitted to undertake and would otherwise be reasonable for us to pursue and (iii) the director or officer is permitted to refer the opportunity to us without violating another legal obligation.

In addition, none of the Operating Partners are officers or directors of our company and therefore owe us no fiduciary duties as such. While we expect that they will assist us in identifying business combination targets, they have no obligation to do so and may devote a substantial portion of their business time to activities unrelated to us. Each Operating Partner may have fiduciary, contractual or other obligations or duties to other organizations to present business combination opportunities to such other organizations rather than to us. Accordingly, if any Operating Partner becomes aware of a business combination opportunity which is suitable for one or more entities to which he or she has fiduciary, contractual or other obligations or duties, he or she will honor those obligations and duties to present such business combination opportunity to such entities first and only present it to us if such entities reject the opportunity and he or she determines to present the opportunity to us. These conflicts may not be resolved in our favor and a potential business may be presented to another entity prior to its presentation to us.

Please see “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance — Conflicts of Interest” and “Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence” in Part III of this Annual Report for a discussion of our officers’ and directors’ business affiliations and potential conflicts of interest.

Our officers, directors, security holders and their respective affiliates may have competitive pecuniary interests that conflict with our interests.

We have not adopted a policy that expressly prohibits our directors, officers, security holders or affiliates from having a direct or indirect pecuniary or financial interest in any investment to be acquired or disposed of by us or in any transaction to which we are a party or have an interest. In fact, we may enter into a business combination with a target business that is affiliated with M. Klein and Company, our sponsor or our directors or officers. We do not have a policy that expressly prohibits any such persons from engaging for their own account in business activities of the types conducted by us. Accordingly, such persons or entities may have a conflict between their interests and ours.

In particular, affiliates of our sponsor, our directors and our officers have invested, and may in the future invest, in a broad array of sectors, including those in which our company may invest. As a result, there may be substantial overlap between companies that would be a suitable business combination for us and companies that would make an attractive target for such other affiliates. Please see “Item 1. Business — Certain Potential Conflicts of Interest Relating to M. Klein and Company and Our Officers and Directors” in Part I of this Annual Report for additional information.

We may engage in a business combination with one or more target businesses that have relationships with entities that may be affiliated with M. Klein and Company, our sponsor, officers or directors which may raise potential conflicts of interest.

In light of the involvement of our sponsor, officers and directors with other businesses, we may decide to acquire one or more businesses affiliated with or competitive with M. Klein and Company, our sponsor, officers and directors, and their respective affiliates. Our directors also serve as officers and board members for other entities, including, without limitation, those described under “Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance — Conflicts of Interest” in Part III of this Annual Report. Such entities may compete with us for business combination opportunities. Our sponsor, officers and directors are not currently aware of any specific opportunities for us to complete our initial business combination with any entities with which they are affiliated, and

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there have been no substantive discussions concerning a business combination with any such entity or entities. Although we will not be specifically focusing on, or targeting, any transaction with any affiliated entities, we would pursue such a transaction if we determined that such affiliated entity met our criteria for a business combination as set forth in “Item 1. Business — Initial Business Combination” in Part I of this Annual Report, and such transaction was approved by a majority of our independent and disinterested directors. Despite our agreement to obtain an opinion from an independent investment banking firm that is a member of FINRA or from an independent accounting firm, regarding the fairness to our stockholders from a financial point of view of a business combination with one or more domestic or international businesses affiliated with M. Klein and Company, our sponsor, officers or directors, potential conflicts of interest still may exist and, as a result, the terms of the business combination may not be as advantageous to our public stockholders as they would be absent any conflicts of interest.

Since our initial stockholders will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed (other than with respect to any public shares they may hold), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.50 Table of ContentsSince our initial stockholders will lose their entire investment in us if our initial business combination is not completed (other than with respect to any public shares they may hold), a conflict of interest may arise in determining whether a particular business combination target is appropriate for our initial business combination.

In December 2020, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 8,625,000 founder shares for an aggregate purchase price of $25,000, or approximately $0.003 per share. On February 5, 2021, we effected a stock dividend with respect to our Class B common stock of 20,125,000 shares thereof. Additionally, on February 11, 2021, we effected a stock dividend with respect to our Class B common stock of 5,750,000 shares thereof, resulting in 34,500,000 founder shares outstanding. All share and per-share amounts have been retroactively restated to reflect the stock dividends. The number of shares of Class B common stock issued was based on the expectation that the shares of Class B common stock would represent 20% of the outstanding shares of common stock upon completion of the IPO. The founder shares will be worthless if we do not complete an initial business combination.

Concurrently with the completion of the IPO, our sponsor purchased an aggregate of 32,600,000 warrants at a price of $1.00 per warrant, or $32,600,000 in the aggregate. An aggregate of $1,380,000,000 was placed in a trust account at the time of closing of the IPO. Each whole private placement warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of Class A common stock at a price of $11.50 per share, subject to certain adjustments.

The founder shares are identical to the shares of Class A common stock included in the units sold in the IPO, except that: (1) only holders of the founder shares have the right to vote on the election of directors prior to our initial business combination, provided, however, that with respect to the election of directors in connection with a meeting of the stockholders of the Company in which a business combination is submitted to the stockholders of the Company for approval, holders of the Class A common stock and holders of the Class B common stock, voting together as a single class, shall have the exclusive right to vote for the election of directors; (2) the founder shares are subject to certain transfer restrictions, as described in more detail below; (3) our sponsor, officers and directors have each entered into a letter agreement with us, pursuant to which they have agreed to: (a) waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and any public shares held by them in connection with the completion of our initial business combination, (b) waive their redemption rights with respect to any founder shares and public shares held by them in connection with a stockholder vote to approve an amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to modify the substance or timing of our obligation to provide for the redemption of our public shares in connection with an initial business combination or to redeem 100% of our public shares if we have not consummated our initial business combination within the completion window; and (c) waive their rights to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any founder shares held by them if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window (although they will be entitled to liquidating distributions from the trust account with respect to any public shares they hold if we fail to complete our initial business combination within the completion window); (4) the founder shares are automatically convertible into shares of our Class A common stock at the time of our initial business combination on a one-for-one basis, subject to adjustment pursuant to certain anti-dilution rights, as described herein; and (5) the holders of founder shares are entitled to registration rights.

The personal and financial interests of our sponsor, officers and directors may influence their motivation in identifying and selecting a target business combination, completing an initial business combination and influencing the operation of the business following the initial business combination. This risk may become more acute as the deadline for completing our initial business combination nears.

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Changes in the market for directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate and complete an initial business combination.

In recent months, the market for directors and officers liability insurance for special purpose acquisition companies has changed in ways adverse to us and our management team. Fewer insurance companies are offering quotes for directors and officers liability coverage, the premiums charged for such policies have generally increased and the terms of such policies have generally become less favorable. These trends may continue into the future.

The increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate an initial business combination.51 Table of ContentsThe increased cost and decreased availability of directors and officers liability insurance could make it more difficult and more expensive for us to negotiate an initial business combination. In order to obtain directors and officers liability insurance or modify its coverage as a result of becoming a public company, the post-business combination entity might need to incur greater expense, accept less favorable terms or both. However, any failure to obtain adequate directors and officers liability insurance could have an adverse impact on the post-business combination’s ability to attract and retain qualified officers and directors.

In addition, even after we were to complete an initial business combination, our directors and officers could still be subject to potential liability from claims arising from conduct alleged to have occurred prior to the initial business combination. As a result, in order to protect our directors and officers, the post-business combination entity may need to purchase additional insurance with respect to any such claims (“run-off insurance”). The need for run-off insurance would be an added expense for the post-business combination entity, and could interfere with or frustrate our ability to consummate an initial business combination on terms favorable to our investors.

Risks Associated with Acquiring and Operating a Business in Foreign Countries

In connection with pursuing a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we may face additional burdens in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing such combination, and if we effect such initial business combination, we would be subject to a variety of additional risks that may negatively impact our operations.

In connection with pursuing a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we are subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.If our management team pursues a company with operations or opportunities outside of the United States for our initial business combination, we would be subject to risks associated with cross-border business combinations, including in connection with investigating, agreeing to and completing our initial business combination, conducting due diligence in a foreign jurisdiction, having such transaction approved by any local governments, regulators or agencies and changes in the purchase price based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.

In connection with pursuing such business combination, special considerations or risks associated with companies operating in an international setting may include any of the following:

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We may not be able to adequately address these additional risks. If we were unable to do so, we may be unable to complete such initial business combination or, if we complete such initial business combination, our operations might suffer, either of which may adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If our management following our initial business combination is unfamiliar with U.S. securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws, which could lead to various regulatory issues.

Following our initial business combination, any or all of our management could resign from their positions as officers of the Company, and the management of the target business at the time of the business combination could remain in place. Management of the target business may not be familiar with U.S. securities laws. If new management is unfamiliar with U.S. securities laws, they may have to expend time and resources becoming familiar with such laws. This could be expensive and time-consuming and could lead to various regulatory issues which may adversely affect our operations.

General Risk Factors

We have no operating history and no revenues, and investors have no basis on which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective.

We have no operating results, and we will not commence operations until after we have completed our initial business combination. Because we lack an operating history and our sole purpose is to complete a business combination with one or more operating companies, investors have no basis upon which to evaluate our ability to achieve our business objective of completing our initial business combination with one or more target businesses. If we fail to complete our business combination, we will never generate any operating revenues.

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Past performance by M. Klein and Company and members of our management team or our Strategic and Operating Partners may not be indicative of future performance of an investment in us.

Information regarding performance by, or businesses associated with, M. Klein and Company and other members of our management team or our Strategic and Operating Partners is presented for informational purposes only. Any past experience and performance, including related to acquisitions, of M. Klein and Company and members of our management team or our Strategic and Operating Partners is not a guarantee either: (1) that we have been able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination; or (2) of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate. Klein and Company and members of our management team or our Strategic and Operating Partners is not a guarantee either: (1) that we will be able to successfully identify a suitable candidate for our initial business combination; or (2) of any results with respect to any initial business combination we may consummate. You should not rely on the historical record and performance of M. Klein and Company and members of our management team or our Strategic and Operating Partners as indicative of the future performance of an investment in us or the returns we will, or are likely to, generate going forward. An investment in us is not an investment in M. Klein and Company or our Strategic and Operating Partners.

Certain agreements related to the IPO may be amended without stockholder approval.

Certain agreements, including the underwriting agreement relating to our IPO, the letter agreements between us and each of our sponsor, officers and directors, and the registration rights agreement among us and our initial stockholders, may be amended without stockholder approval. These agreements contain various provisions that our public stockholders might deem to be material. While we do not expect our board to approve any amendment to any of these agreements prior to our initial business combination, it may be possible that our board, in exercising its business judgment and subject to its fiduciary duties, chooses to approve one or more amendments to any such agreement in connection with the consummation of our initial business combination. Any such amendments would not require approval from our stockholders, may result in the completion of our initial business combination that may not otherwise have been possible, and may have an adverse effect on the value of an investment in our securities.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and Delaware law may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against directors, officers and employees for breach of fiduciary duty and other similar actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel. This provision may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware shall be the sole and exclusive forum for certain stockholder litigation matters, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware shall be the sole and exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law:

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Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in our securities will be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to this exclusive forum provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, employees, agents or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our 54 Table of Contentsdirectors, officers, employees, agents or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find this choice of forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions. Additional costs associated with resolving an action in other jurisdictions could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Item 1B.Unresolved Staff Comments.

None.

Item 1C.Item 1A. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Risk Management

We are a special purpose acquisition company with no business operations. Since our IPO, our sole business activity has been identifying and evaluating suitable acquisition transaction candidates. Therefore, we do not consider that we face significant cybersecurity risk and have not adopted any cybersecurity risk management program or formal processes for assessing cybersecurity risk. Our management is generally responsible for the oversight of risks from cybersecurity threats, if any. Information regarding any cybersecurity incidents would be shared with our board of directors or audit committee to enable assessments related to disclosure and notice requirements. We have not encountered any cybersecurity incidents since our IPO.

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