With market indices rallying to all-time highs this summer, investors seem to be betting on a recovering U.S. economy. But more and more pundits are warning that the market may be over-hyping the still somewhat limited real growth in the economy. The U.S. unemployment rate declined...
According to Wikipedia, the origin of the term "dog days of summer" was tied around a star. Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog), is called the "dog star" because it is the brightest in the group. In the Greek and Roman days, these stars...
Lately it's been reported that mega-mergers are coming back in a variety of industries. We have waited quite awhile for this to happen. We hope that will also begin to trickle down to the middle and lower middle market of deals. There are pluses and minuses...
Yesterday US prosecutors filed charges against five Eastern European men. They are accused of hacking into computers at Nasdaq and a bunch of major Wall Street companies. It appears the government believes they stole over 160 million credit card numbers. They are calling it the...
According to The Deal, there were eight IPOs of life science companies in May alone, more than the whole rest of the year leading up to May. This is good! And they are generally trading very well. In the second quarter, life science IPOs were...
The US House of Representatives recently passed a bill to prevent the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) from requiring public companies to rotate their auditors every few years. You can find the text of the bill at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr1564/text. As we know the PCAOB is overseen...
It looks like the small cap market just finished its strongest half year since 2008. That's good! According to The Deal, IPOs doubled, private investments in public equity (PIPEs) are up as are special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), and additional public offerings by already public companies...
This is a little technical but will be important if it applies to you. In the new rules passed ending the ban on general solicitation and advertising in Regulation D Rule 506 private securities offerings, the SEC specifically discussed their impact on private equity, hedge...
As I wade through the newly passed and proposed rules relating to private securities offerings I will post some tidbits of note. This entry focuses on the "safe harbors." In the new rule ending the ban on general solicitation, while the SEC did not mandate...
In a surprisingly granular discussion for the editorial page of the venerable New York Times, it seems the Old Gray Lady is not happy with new SEC Chair Mary Jo White. In an editorial entitled "You've Been Warned," the editors today sharply criticized Ms. White...