In the wake of the 2014 Rolling Stone article on the mishandling of a brutal rape at the University of Virginia, a Virginia court ruled against the magazine in favor of former dean of student affairs, Nicole Eramo. The 10-member jury came back with $3 million in damages for Eramo on November 11, citing that reporter Sabrina Rubin Elderly acted with the malice necessary for defamation liability.
The Disparate Impacts of Trump’s Proposed Tax Law Reform
President-elect Donald Trump’s tax plan, if passed by Congress, is predicted to help the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Trump’s plan to reduce overall taxes will have the likely effect of keeping money in the hands of the 1 percent of American households, creating family “dynasties” and providing corporations with large tax cuts, while generating less income for the government and the poor.
“Brexit” Concerns Could Prompt M&A Migration
International banks have traditionally concentrated their European dealmakers in London, but after the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union (“Brexit”), it is unclear whether and how much transactional activity will shift out of the U.K. The German deal market is heating up and banks are subtly shifting bankers to satellite offices in Frankfurt, indicating that Germany is in a position to absorb British banking activity.
Semiconductor Acquisitions Continue: Broadcom to Acquire Brocade
The semiconductor industry is seeing a historic wave of mergers and acquisitions in response to the industry’s slow growth and rising costs. Over $100 billion in deals have occurred in two years and more companies are exploring the growth-by-acquisition strategy in order to stay competitive. Notable mentions include SoftBank acquiring ARM Holdings for $23 billion, Intel acquiring Altera for $17 billion, and Qualcomm’s recent agreement to acquire NXP Semiconductors for $38.5 billion.
Foreign Business Worries Over Strict Chinese Cybersecurity Law
China may have added to the so-called “Great Firewall of China,” on Monday, November 7, 2016, by passing a new cybersecurity law, all part of a broader effort to define how the Internet is managed inside China’s borders. The legislation, passed by China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament, is set to take effect in June 2017. President Xi Jinping has focused Internet policymaking on so-called “cyber-sovereignty” throughout his administration. Since the advent of the Internet, the government of China has created sixty Internet regulations, many of which involve blocking Internet content or monitoring Internet access for individuals.
DiCaprio to Cooperate in Probe into Malaysia’s 1MDB
1Malaysia Development Berhad (“1MDB”), Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund, was set up by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009. 1MDB was meant to boost the Malaysian economy through strategic investments, and turn its capital city, Kuala Lumpur, into a financial hub. In early 2015, however, 1MDB began to attract negative attention after missing its payments on its $11 billion debt, owed to banks and bondholders. Specifically, 1MDB missed the repayment of a $563 million short-term loan that was due in December of 2014.
22 Lotte Group Officials Indicted by South Korean Prosecutors
On October 19, 2016, South Korean prosecutors announced the indictment of 22 Lotte Group officials, including the chairman, for embezzlement, tax evasion, and other corporate malfeasance following a four month corruption probe.
SEC to Propose Corporate Election Reform
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced that it would consider proposing amendments to the disclosure requirements imposed in corporate director elections. The amendment would alter the ways in which investors nominate and elect members to the company’s board of directors in contested elections. By focusing on a universal ballot with a single voting form, the SEC hopes to make it easier for shareholders to exercise control over the company’s management. This would be a rather dramatic deviation from the current practice wherein voters receive two separate ballots representing a competing group of board candidates.
SEC Prepares Regulatory Review into the Exchange Traded Fund Industry
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing for a full-scale review of the exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry, an unnamed source told the Financial Times in an article published October 20, 2016.
Wells Fargo Targets the Weak
On September 8, 2016, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $185 million in fines as a result of illegal banking practices its employees had engaged in for years. Since as early as 2005, Wells Fargo employees opened about two million unauthorized bank accounts and sent out countless unsolicited credit cards.