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The owners of F45, a fitness concept with more than 2,000 franchises sold in more than 50 countries, was planning a traditional initial public offering earlier this year when COVID scuttled the idea. Instead, Bob Beyer and Todd Purdy, partners at Crescent Acquisition Corp., plan to take F45 public via a merger with its SPAC, a special purchase acquisition company also known as a blank-check firm, a deal type that M&A experts say is on the rise.