(Bloomberg) -- Omeed Malik’s special purpose acquisition company Colombier Acquisition Corp. II has agreed to merge with online firearms retailer GrabAGun, a deal likely eschewed by many other Wall Street investors over ESG principles.
The transaction values GrabAGun at about $150 million and may be announced as soon as Monday, assuming talks don’t collapse at the last minute, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Malik, a former Bank of America Corp. executive, is chairman and CEO of Colombier. He’s also founder of merchant bank Farvahar Partners and investment firm 1789 Capital, which has a mandate that includes backing companies affected by environmental, social and governance investing principles and that operate in a parallel economy catering to conservative values.
Malik’s first SPAC merged with PSQ Holdings Inc., the owner of online marketplace PublicSquare that aims to connect “patriotic” consumers and businesses such as EveryLife, a maker of diapers that describes itself as “pro-life.” He was part of a core group of finance backers for President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign.
In October, PSQ launched a payments company and expects to process more than $1.8 billion of gun and firearm-related transactions in 2025, a person familiar with the matter had told Bloomberg. Last month, PSQ named Donald Trump Jr., a partner at 1789, to its board.
Dallas-based GrabAGun, led by Chief Executive Officer Marc Nemati, is profitable and delivered roughly $100 million in revenue in 2024, the people said. The company, founded in 2011 and which sells firearms, ammunition and other apparel, quotes the Second Amendment on its website and says it believes its “American duty” is to help consumers understand and legally secure their firearms and accessories.
Representatives for GrabAGun and Colombier declined to comment.
Colombier, based in Palm Beach, Florida, raised $170 million in a November 2023 initial public offering. Its shares closed Friday at $11.79 apiece, giving it a market value of about $200 million. In a securities filing ahead of the IPO, the company said it may focus on opportunities including “sectors with impaired value due to certain investor mandates.”
“We believe millions of Americans are willing and able to vote with their dollars every day, and businesses have just begun to leverage this trend,” Colombier said in the filing. “We envision an economic landscape where values-aligned business transactions become normative.”
The GrabAGun transaction comes as US unadjusted criminal background checks rose to 2.76 million in December, the highest in about 20 months, according to data from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The data is considered a proxy for firearms sales, though a background check doesn’t mean a gun sale occurred.
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