Gryphon Digital Mining Ends Plans to Go Public Through Merger With Sphere 3D

Gryphon Digital Mining, a privately held company focused on mining bitcoin BTC$68,972.72 using 100% renewable energy, will not be going public via a reverse merger with publicly traded data management firm, Sphere 3D (ANY), the companies announced Monday.

• In a statement, Gryphon and Sphere said they had agreed to terminate the agreement "due to changing market conditions, the passage of time, and the relative financial positions of the companies, among other factors."
• The companies said they would continue to work together through what they termed a Master Services Agreement, with Gryphon generating "operating income through management of Sphere 3D's mining fleet," and Sphere 3D benefiting from "Gryphon's expertise in mining." Sphere 3D has been expanding its own mining operations and now has 1,000 miners running, the company said in the statement.
• Gryphon appointed a new CFO, Brian Chase, who previously worked at Garrison Investment Group and Blackstone Group (BX), said a Tuesday press release.
• The deal was announced on June 3 and initially slated to close in the third quarter of 2021. But the companies pushed back that timeframe to the fourth quarter due to a complicated regulatory approval process, and then again to the first quarter of 2022.
• Under terms of the agreement, Sphere said that it would have issued 111 million shares to Gryphon shareholders. Gryphon CEO Rob Chang, who previously served as chief financial officer of bitcoin miner Riot Blockchain (RIOT), would have become CEO of the combined company, which would have taken the Gryphon name.
• “As a pending shareholder and operating partner of Sphere 3D, we look forward to the mutual success of both companies," Chang said in the Monday statement.
• Nasdaq-traded Sphere's share price closed down 1.8% on Monday.

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UPDATE (April 5, 13:25 UTC): Adds news about CFO appointment in third bullet.