Forbes Nears NYSE Listing After $200M Binance Investment

Digital publisher Forbes is inching closer to a New York Stock Exchange listing through a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited after a $200 million investment by cryptocurrency exchange Binance, according to a CoinBase report Thursday (Feb. 10).

Forbes, which would list on NYSE under the ticker symbol FRBS, will use the Binance investment to speed up its digital growth, the report says. The company publishes an eponymous magazine named for its founder, Steve Forbes, and an annual list that ranks the world’s richest people.

Binance’s investment makes it one of the two biggest owners in Forbes. It will assume half of the $400 million committed by institutional investors in August, the report says.

Patrick Hillmann, chief communications officer at Binance, and Bill Chin, head of Binance Labs, will join the Forbes board upon the closure of the transaction, which is expected in the first quarter of this year.

“As Web3 and blockchain technologies move forward and the crypto market comes of age we know that media is an essential element to build widespread consumer understanding and education,” said Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance.

“We look forward to bolstering Forbes’ Digital initiatives, as they evolve into a next level investment insights platform,” he said.

Related: Uquid.com Teams Up With Binance Pay to Offer No-Fee Crypto Payments

Last month, eCommerce platform Uquid.com, which has more than 2 million products available for sale, integrated with Binance Pay to allow users to buy more than 40 digital tokens without fees.

Uquid’s eCommerce and decentralized finance (DeFi) platform accepts about 100 tokens. The firm is considering expanding the reach of its DeFi shopping network beyond the Ethereum blockchain. Uquid.com also offers buy now pay later (BNPL) by crypto to its customers, allowing them to spread out their payments into installments with no extra fees.