[Editor’s note: the following post comes from a recent M&A Alert by Kirkland and Ellis partners Daniel E. Wolf and Sarkis Jebejian.] With valuations stabilizing and the M&A market heating up, a rebirth of stock-for-stock deals, after a long period of dominance for all-cash transactions, may be in the offing. If this happens, we expect […]
JOBS Act Symposium: Liveblog Recap & Review
This post will detail the two panels from last Friday’s 2013 BCLBE and BBLJ JOBS Act Symposium: 1) The IPO On-Ramp and 2) Crowdfunding. Panel 1: The IPO On-Ramp Moderator: Ian Peck Robert Bartlett, Professor, UC Berkeley, School of Law Reza Dibadj, Visiting Professor, UC Berkeley, School of Law Martin Zwilling, Startup Professionals Background: […]
JOBS Act Symposium: Crowdfunding–Finance Democratization or Investor Protection?
The crowdfunding panelists discussed what Mary Dent referred to as a “fundamental tension” between the democratization of finance and protecting unsophisticated investors. In traditional securities law, S.E.C. has protected Main Street consumers from especially risky investments, unless an investor can demonstrate they he or she is a sophisticated investor—using net worth, for example, as a […]
JOBS Act Symposium: Do the crowdfunding provisions make bigger problems than the ones they try to solve?
The Symposium’s second panel discussed the JOB Act’s crowdfunding exception. Our morning panelists are joined by Mary Dent, Jerome Engel, and Eric Brooks. Eric Brooks sees investors defrauded everyday in his job with the SEC. As a result, the cynic in him says that the crowdfunding provisions do create greater problems than the solve. Fraud is even […]
JOBS Act Symposium: Crowdfunding
The Symposium’s second panel discussed the JOB Act’s crowdfunding exception. Our morning panelists are joined by Mary Dent, Jerome Engel, and Eric Brooks. [Note: Mr. Brooks is with the S.E.C., but noted that his remarks are not official and do not represent the administration’s position. His comments are his own.] What is crowdfunding (“CF”) is […]
JOBS Act Symposium: Lessons Learned from the Facebook IPO?
The panelists mostly agreed that the high-profile Facebook IPO debacle has cooled excitement for IPOs, at least within those private companies considering monetization. Mr. Zwilling gave a brief summary. He thinks many entrepreneurs are now saying, “I want nothing to do with this,” referring to the IPO process. Zwilling noted, for example, Zuckerberg’s widespread criticism […]
JOBS Act Symposium: Which of the Title 1 provisions has the biggest potential impact to incentivize IPO offerings and will it work?
This morning’s first panel features Robert Bartlett, Reza Dibadj, and Martin Zwilling, discussing the JOBS Act’s Title I provisions for initial public offerings. The panelists were asked to predict which part of Title 1 of the JOBS Act will have the biggest impact on IPO offerings? Reza Dibadj discussed the way in which the JOBS Act allows emerging growth […]
JOBS Act Symposium: Do Entrepreneurs Prefer IPOs or M&A Exit Strategies?
Is the IPO market depressed because M&A is becoming the preferred exit strategy for entrepreneurs? Martin Zwilling opened by commenting that entrepreneurs today prefer M&A, because private acquisition is not as burdensome or costly as preparing for an IPO. In addition, many startups have recently seen “huge premiums” paid via M&A, so their bottom-line return […]
JOBS Act Symposium: What IPO problems did the JOBS Act set out to solve?
This morning’s first panel features Robert Bartlett, Reza Dibadj, and Martin Zwilling, discussing the JOBS Act’s Title I provisions for initial public offerings. The panelists were asked to discuss the problems with IPOs antecedent to the passage of the JOBS Act and the problems that the Act set out to solve. Reza Dibadj provided statistical evidence to support the […]
JOBS Act Symposium: The IPO On-Ramp
This morning’s first panel features Robert Bartlett, Reza Dibadj, and Martin Zwilling, discussing the JOBS Act’s Title I provisions for initial public offerings. Professor Bartlett began with the political economy surrounding the legislation. He noted the interaction between initial public offerings (“IPO”) and a well-functioning venture capital (“VC”) ecosystem. Without accessible IPO requirements or other sources of […]