Live Oak Acquisition Corp. V

Rick Hendrix and Gary Wunderlich established the Live Oak platform based in Memphis, Tennessee. Hendrix serves as CEO, while Wunderlich acts as CFO across the franchise's vehicles. Both come from the southern middle-market investment banking world, where they spent years advising founder-led businesses on mergers, acquisitions, and capital-raising before launching their SPAC series.

Live Oak V is structurally similar to its predecessors — a special-purpose acquisition company targeting a technology or business services firm — but it launched in a much more competitive and scrutinized SPAC market. The $287.5 million raise was larger than some earlier Live Oak vehicles, reflecting the franchise's accumulated track record. The key distinction is timing: Live Oak V entered the market at the tail end of the SPAC boom, when investor expectations for sponsor quality and target fundamentals had sharply increased.

To date, no completed business combination has been publicly announced for Live Oak Acquisition Corp. V. Like many SPACs launched in 2021, the vehicle faced a narrowing window to identify and close a suitable merger amid tightening SPAC regulations and deteriorating market sentiment for newly public de-SPAC companies. The status of any pending or terminated merger agreement remains a matter of public SEC filing review.

The SEC filings for Live Oak V indicate a broad mandate across technology, media, telecommunications, enterprise software, fintech, digital health, industrial technology, and renewable energy. This wide aperture reflects the generalist M&A approach that defines the Live Oak franchise, rather than a thesis-driven focus on one vertical. The team's historical preference has been for businesses with durable moats and founder-led cultures.

Live Oak operates as a repeat-sponsor franchise, meaning the same core management team has launched multiple sequential SPACs. This model is less common than single-sponsor vehicles and creates continuity in deal-sourcing networks, regulatory knowledge, and institutional credibility. The franchise architecture allows the sponsor to amortize compliance and operational overhead across vehicles while building a reputation for consistent execution.

Memphis is an outlier among SPAC sponsor locations, which cluster in New York, San Francisco, and Miami. The Hendrix-Wunderlich team's southern base gave them proximity to family- and founder-owned middle-market businesses in the Southeast and lower Midwest — a segment often underserved by coastal sponsors. This geographic positioning, combined with the principals' investment banking networks, constituted a distinct sourcing advantage in a crowded SPAC market.

Based on prior Live Oak de-SPAC transactions, the team tends to take board seats and maintain active operational oversight rather than handing off the business after closing. This 'permanent capital' posture is reinforced by the repeat-sponsor model — poor post-merger performance in one vehicle would impair the team's ability to raise subsequent funds. Specific board structures and governance terms for Live Oak V remain undisclosed without a completed deal.