Two and a half years ago he was the seventh wealthiest man in the world, worth an estimated $30 billion. Now with a net worth of less than $300 million, Eike Batista’s empire has crumbled before his eyes.
German Prosecutors Charge Deutsche Bank Executives
Munich’s prosecutor’s office charged several Deutsche Bank top executives, including its current co-chief executive, Jürgen Fitschen, and Deutsche Bank was named as an associated party to the case.
The (Billion) Dollar Saga Continues as Dollar General Goes Hostile
For some time now, a most interesting and intriguing saga relating to corporate mergers have been taking place in the “dollar” retail industry, where Dollar General and Dollar Tree are each seeking to acquire holdings in Family Dollar.
Antitrust Concerns Stem From Merger Frenzy in Healthcare Industry
Mergers and acquisitions within the healthcare industry have become increasingly common since the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in March 2013. Parties to the individual merger transactions often cite the need to comply with and survive under the PPACA as a justification for the unification between otherwise-competitors in the healthcare services market. In the view of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), however, the consolidation of competing healthcare service providers raises anticompetitive concerns that must be monitored and regulated to ensure compliance with Federal antitrust laws.
HSBC’s $550 Million Dollar Mortgage Bond Settlement
After peaking in 2006, housing prices in the United States began to decline very swiftly – even more so than in the Great Depression. As prices fell 33 percent (they fell 31 percent during the Great Depression), homeowners realized that the value of their homes had become lower than their mortgage debt, and they lost their incentive to pay their mortgage balances. This led to foreclosures and short sales at unprecedented levels. Significantly, lost output—goods and services that we will never see—reached at least 40 percent of 2007 U.S. gross domestic product.
Stripe’s Role in the $720 Billion Mobile Commerce Market
In 2010 two brothers from Dromineer, Ireland followed the Zuckerberg dream, dropping out of MIT and Harvard to move to the San Francisco Bay Area and build a start-up, Stripe Inc. Four years later, having raised $140 million in funding from a line of investors including the co-founders of PayPal, the payment processing company is now valued at $1.75 billion.
Alibaba: The Biggest IPO in U.S. History
China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba began trading its shares Friday, September 19 on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming a publicly traded technology powerhouse. Its first trade changed hands at $92.70, well above the $68 initial price that some investors paid, creating a 38% first-day gain. Now, Alibaba has a market capitalization of roughly $219.8 billion, making the company bigger than Facebook, eBay and Amazon.com. Wall Street firms, including Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, will have collected fees in excess of $300 million.
Constitutionality of the SEC’s Growing Administrative Forum
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) is increasingly favoring the administrative process over the court system for prosecuting securities cases, likely as a result of expanded powers included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. For example, in the administrative forum, the SEC now has the authority to prosecute all individuals – even those not associated with regulated entities – and can impose more fines than it could before. Russell Ryan, a partner at King & Spalding in Washington, pointed out that the SEC obtained a record $3.4 billion in monetary sanctions in 2013 and continues to bring multi-million dollar actions. Notably, the SEC recently added two administrative law judges to its staff, increasing the number of judges from three to five. Furthermore, in June, Enforcement Director Andrew Ceresney announced that the SEC will bring more insider trading actions through administrative proceedings.
S.E.C. Tightens Regulations on Asset-Backed Securities
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“S.E.C.”) adopted new rules on August 27 that increase disclosure requirements for issuers of asset-backed securities and establish new safeguards against conflicts-of-interest in the credit rating process. The rules implement reforms mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress passed in 2010 to address the systemic issues at the root of the financial crisis. (more…)
Family Dollar Rejects Takeover Bid by Dollar General
On August 21, 2014, Family Dollar Stores, Inc. announced that its Board of Directors unanimously rejected Dollar General Corporation’s takeover bid, citing antitrust issues. This news comes in light of the fact that Dollar General outbid rival Dollar Tree, raising the possibility that Family Dollar would abandon its existing deal with Dollar Tree. However, Family Dollar rejected Dollar General’s proposed $9.7 billion acquisition offer and reaffirmed its support for the $8.5 billion deal with Dollar Tree, which it already agreed to. (more…)