IPOs from the NFL (YahooFinance)
Vernon Davis, the starting tight end for the San Francisco 49ers, is the second National Football League (NFL) player after Adrian Foster of the Houston Texans to sign up for an IPO through Fantex, a sports marketing and management firm. Fantex plans to buy 10 percent of Davis’ future earnings for $4 million and then sell independent investors shares in a tracking stock linked to his economic performance. Economic performance is defined here as the value of playing contracts, corporate endorsements and appearance fees. While there’s initial excitement over the new idea, Wall Street’s warning individual investors of the inherent risk associated with these investments — as a significant injury to the “underlying asset” could destroy its future value. Stay tuned.