Sometimes it's the deals you don't do that provoke food for thought. Since late July, Wayne-based Ascend Acquisition Corp. (OTC.BB:ASAQ), has had plans to acquire an Austin, Texas company called ePak International Ltd.
An amended registration statement recounts the litany of businesses that Ascend considered before choosing ePak: an industrial pipe maker, a snack food retailer, a home-building materials supplier, a document storage firm, medical-service billing company, several oil-field services businesses, a temp agency, a foam fabricator, a provider of voting machines, an infrastructure repair company, a media firm focused on the Hispanic radio market, a propane fuel supplier, an urban for-profit day care school, and a freight forwarding business. (No names, of course.)
As for ePak, it can be seen as a high-tech China play, given its huge semiconductor-related products factory in Shenzhen. Ascend, a special-purpose acquisition company, has been advised by Arthur Spector, a Philadelphia-area M&A and finance executive.
