Former Boeing CEO Muilenburg’s SPAC Files to Raise $200 Million

(Bloomberg) -- Dennis Muilenburg, the former chief executive officer of Boeing Co. who stepped down during the 737 Max crisis, has filed for a blank-check company.

His special purpose acquisition company is called New Vista Acquisition and is seeking to raise $200 million, a filing showed, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. It intends to focus on finding a target in the space, defense and communications and the advanced air mobility and logistics industries.

Prominent figures from the business, politics and sports worlds have been rushing into the SPAC market since last year partly due to the lucrative payout for managing these vehicles.

Stephen W. Wilson, a retired U.S. Air Force general, is listed as a director nominee of the SPAC. It also has advisers who were former Boeing executives including Diana Sands, who was president of the office of internal governance and administration, former communications executive Anne Toulouse and a former chief technology officer John Tracy.

The former Boeing chief was ousted in late 2019 after fumbling the planemaker's response to two deadly 737 Max accidents and their aftermath. At Boeing, Muilenburg was an enthusiastic supporter of autonomous flying vehicles and the air-traffic control technology that would one day allow them to whisk urban commuters over traffic-clogged streets.

Mired in crisis by the 20-month Max grounding and Covid-pandemic, the U.S. manufacturer last year folded its Boeing NeXt venture capital arm. Under Muilenburg, the unit had pursued joint ventures with the likes of Kitty Hawk, a futuristic aircraft maker backed by Alphabet Inc. co-founder Larry Page

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