Wall Street isn’t always too fussed about whether a start-up is profitable before listing on the stock exchange. A decent track record of sales growth is usually pretty essential, though. That quaint idea has been turned on its head this year by the fad for special purpose acquisition companies. Called SPACs for short, they raise cash from investors in an initial public offering and then go find a company to buy. By merging with one of these cash boxes, the target gets a dollop of capital and a stock market listing without all the hassle of a traditional IPO (though the fees can be steep). So far this year, North ... (full story)