If an asset is physically located within India, Indian Revenue has a legitimate tax claim on its disposition. But a recent case, involving the sale of a telecom company, challenged the taxability of such dispositions. Factual Background: In 2005, Vodafone acquired a stake in India’s largest telecom operator, Airtel. India was a huge market, so […]
The Complexity of the Derivative Action in Asia: An Inconvenient Truth
By Dan W. Puchniak, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. Author of the forthcoming article in the Berkeley Business Law Journal, “The Derivative Action in Asia: A Complex Reality.” In this era of globalization, the field of comparative corporate law has come of age. With corporations and capital increasingly transcending national borders, […]
A New Business Model for a High-Demand Market
By Ana Amodaj, J.D. Candidate 2014, UC Berkeley School of Law LegalZoom, the leading provider of non-lawyer online legal services to consumers, filed an S-1 form last month for an IPO seeking to raise as much as $120 million. Recent success and expansion of companies like LegalZoom into the market for affordable legal services has […]
“I Plead the Fifth,” Says Former Maxim CEO, Over 150 Times.
The Ninth Circuit recently upheld a jury verdict against Maxim Integrated Products Inc.’s former CFO, Carl Jasper, for various fraudulent interstate transactions resulting from stock option backdating. In so doing, the court’s most significant holding was to uphold jury instructions regarding the Jasper’s more than 150 Fifth Amendment invocations. As background, firms can grant “in […]
Financial Services Providers Race (Cautiously) to Conquer Social Media
The first of this month Goldman Sachs announced that it would be hiring a new “social media community manager.” This report comes on the heels of Morgan Stanley’s announcement in March that it was launching a new social media program designed to enable its nearly 17,800 financial advisers to use Twitter and LinkedIn to disseminate […]
@Wall Street Is Tweeting #SecuritiesLaws
There is no denying the prominent role that social media has taken in our lives. We are confronted daily with phenomena such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Their member totals have grown exponentially and their IPO’s are valued at billions of dollars. Thus, it is no wonder that social media websites are attracting the attention […]
The SEC’s Limit Up – Limit Down Rule Can Help Markets, But Does It Go Far Enough To Address High-Frequency Trading?
The BATS IPO was an ironic disaster. BATS, a stock exchange that billed itself as the future of stock trading, botched the IPO of its own stock, which was supposed to be listed on the BATS exchange beginning March 23rd. According to the company, the failure was caused by a software bug, and not by […]
Trans-Pacific Partnership Seeks New Global Standard in Free Trade and Intellectual Property
As we discussed in our recent pieces about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA), online communities have grown increasingly agitated by efforts to globalize the U.S. intellectual property regime. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), a free trade agreement that liberalizes far more than intellectual property protection, has so […]
The Impact of the JOBS Act on Silicon Valley: Engine of Growth or License for Scam Artists?
On March 27, 2012, Congress passed the final version of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (‘JOBS Act’), aimed at increasing American job creation and economic growth by making it easier for startup companies to raise funds. As a Kauffman Foundation report posits, “Startups aren’t everything when it comes to job growth. They’re the only […]
Live Blogging at the Foreclosure Crisis Symposium: Q&A Session
Q: What do the panelist think of moral hazard question? Are borrowers likely to default in order to qualify for a loan modification? David Moskowitz: The moral hazard issue has always been a hot topic behind scenes. I personally think that the threat of strategic default is not substantial. I believe that at the end […]