CQ Roll Call owner to go public in early 2022

D.C.-based legal and regulatory software tracking technology company FiscalNote, which acquired CQ Roll Call for $180 million in 2018, will become a publicly traded company through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger.

The transaction is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2022, and it will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NOTE.”

The transaction values FiscalNote at $1.3 billion and will combine the company with Duddell Street Acquisition, a company backed by Hong Kong-based hedge fund Maso Capital.



FiscalNote’s backers are a Who’s Who list of technology investors, including AOL co-founder Steve Case, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, billionaire Mark Cuban and Winklevoss Capital. All investors will roll 100% of their equity into the publicly-traded company and own 76% of FiscalNote when it goes public.

Once completed, FiscalNote co-founder and CEO, 29-year-old Tim Hwang, will become the youngest Asian-American founder and CEO on a major U.S. stock exchange.

FiscalNote was founded in 2013. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to collect and analyze global legislative, regulatory and geopolitical data for its clients, who use the information to track relevant policy and regulatory updates.

Its thousands of blue chip subscribers include 3M, AstraZeneca, FedEx, Lyft, Microsoft, the National Association of Realtors, Netflix, Northrop Grumman, Peloton, Tesla, Uber and Zillow. Its government clients include the White House, Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Federal Reserve.

FiscalNote’s acquisition of CQ Roll Call gained access to its subscriber-based services, including news, data and analysis about Congress and legislation.

FiscalNote has about 650 employees worldwide.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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