Monthly Archives: November 2015

Insider Trading and Tender Offers

Posted by Christopher E. Austin & Victor I. Lewkow, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, on
Monday, November 30, 2015
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More from: , ,

Christopher E. Austin and Victor Lewkow are partners focusing on public and private merger and acquisition transactions at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. This post is based on a Cleary Gottlieb memorandum.

Valeant’s hostile bid for Allergan was one of 2014’s most discussed takeover battles. The situation, which ultimately resulted in the acquisition of Allergan by Actavis plc, included a novel structure that involved a “partnership” between Valeant and the investment fund Pershing Square. In particular, a Pershing Square-controlled entity having a small minority interest owned by Valeant, acquired shares and options to acquire shares constituting more than nine percent of Allergan’s common stock. Such purchases were made by Pershing Square with Valeant’s consent and with full knowledge of Valeant’s intentions to announce a proposal to acquire Allergan. Pershing Square and Valeant then filed a Schedule 13D and Pershing Square then supported Valeant’s proposed acquisition. Ultimately Pershing Square made a very substantial profit on its investment when Allergan was sold to Actavis.

READ MORE »

Insider Trading and Innovation

Posted by Ross Levine, University of California, Berkeley, on
Monday, November 30, 2015
, , , , , , , , , ,
More from: , ,

Ross Levine is Professor of Finance at the University of California, Berkeley. This post is based on an article authored by Professor Levine; Chen Lin, Professor of Finance at the University of Hong Kong; and Lai Wei of the School of Economics and Finance at the University of Hong Kong.

In our paper, Insider Trading and Innovation, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we investigate the impact of restricting insider trading on the rate of technological innovation. Our research is motivated by two literatures: the finance and growth literature stresses that financial markets shape economic growth and the rate of technological innovation, and the law and finance literature emphasizes that legal systems that protect minority shareholders enhance financial markets. What these literatures have not yet addressed is whether legal systems that protect outside investors from corporate insiders influence a crucial source of economic growth—technological innovation. In our research, we bridge this gap. We examine whether restrictions on insider trading—trading by corporate officials, major shareholders, or others based on material non-public information—influences technological innovation.

READ MORE »

SEC Guidance on Voting During M&A Transactions

Posted by David W. Bernstein, Ettore Santucci, & John Haggerty, Goodwin Procter LLP, on
Sunday, November 29, 2015
, , , , , , , , , ,
More from: , , ,

Ettore A. Santucci and John T. Haggerty are partners and David W. Bernstein is counsel at Goodwin Procter LLP. This post is based on a Goodwin Procter publication by Messrs. Santucci, Haggerty, and Bernstein. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes Bundling and Entrenchment by Lucian Bebchuk and Ehud Kamar (discussed on the Forum here).

On October 27, 2015, the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC modified Section 201 of its Question and Answer guidance regarding SEC Rule 14a-4(a)(3) to require that if a material amendment to an acquiror’s organizational documents would require shareholder approval under state law, stock exchange rules or otherwise if presented on a standalone basis, if the change is effected by a merger (including a triangular merger) and is required by the transaction documents, the shareholders of both the acquiror and the target company must be given the opportunity to vote on the change in the organizational documents separately from their vote on whether to approve the merger or the merger agreement.

READ MORE »

The Fed’s Finalized Liquidity Reporting Requirements

Posted by Dan Ryan, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, on
Saturday, November 28, 2015
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More from: , , , ,

Dan Ryan is Leader of the Financial Services Advisory Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. This post is based on a PwC publication by Mr. Ryan, Mike Alix, Adam Gilbert, and Armen Meyer. The complete publication, including Appendix, is available here.

On November 13th, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) finalized liquidity reporting requirements for large US financial institutions and US operations of foreign banks (FBOs). [1] The requirements were proposed last year and are intended to improve the FRB’s monitoring of the liquidity profiles of firms that are subject to the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) [2] and their foreign peers, and to enhance the FRB’s view of liquidity across institutions.

READ MORE »

Does Majority Voting Improve Board Accountability?

Posted by Edward B. Rock, University of Pennsylvania Law School, on
Friday, November 27, 2015
, , , , , , , , , , ,
More from: , , ,

Edward B. Rock is the Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor of Business Law at University of Pennsylvania Law School. This post is based on a paper, Does Majority Voting Improve Board Accountability?, authored by Professor Rock, Stephen J. Choi, Murray and Kathleen Bring Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law, Jill E. Fisch, Perry Golkin Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Marcel Kahan, George T. Lowy Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law.

Directors have traditionally been elected by a plurality of the votes cast (the Plurality Voting Rule or PVR). This means that the candidates who receive the most votes are elected, even if a candidate does not receive a majority of the votes cast. Indeed, in uncontested elections, a candidate who receives even a single vote is elected. Proponents of “shareholder democracy” have advocated a shift to a Majority Voting Rule (MVR), under which a candidate must receive a majority of the votes cast to be elected. This, proponents say, will make directors more accountable to shareholders.

READ MORE »

Shedding Light on Dark Pools

Posted by Luis A. Aguilar, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More from: ,

Luis A. Aguilar is a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This post is based on Commissioner Aguilar’s recent public statement at an open meeting of the SEC; the full text, including footnotes, is available here. The views expressed in the post are those of Commissioner Aguilar and do not necessarily reflect those of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the other Commissioners, or the Staff.

Today, [November 18, 2015], the Commission considers proposing much-needed enhancements to the regulatory regime for alternative trading systems (“ATSs”) that trade national market system (“NMS”) stocks. I will support these proposals because they could go a long way toward helping market participants make informed decisions as they attempt to navigate the byzantine structure of today’s equity markets.

READ MORE »

Rural/Metro and Disclosure Settlements

Posted by Joel E. Friedlander, Friedlander & Gorris, P.A., on
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
, , , , , , , , , , , ,
More from: ,

Joel E. Friedlander is President of Friedlander & Gorris, P.A. This post relates to Mr. Friedlander’s recent article, How Rural/Metro Exposes the Systemic Problem of Disclosure Settlements. This post is part of the Delaware law series; links to other posts in the series are available here.

There is no aspect of merger and acquisitions litigation more pervasive or significant than the disclosure settlement. It is the mechanism by which stockholder claims are conclusively resolved for approximately half of all public company acquisitions greater than $100 million. [1] For that half of major acquisitions, the contracting parties and their directors, officers, affiliates, and advisors receive a court-approved global release of known and unknown claims relating to the merger in exchange for supplemental disclosures to stockholders prior to the stockholder vote. [2] The supplemental disclosures have no impact on stockholder approval of the merger. Nevertheless, in almost every such case, class counsel for the stockholder plaintiff receives a court-approved six-figure fee award for having conferred a benefit on the stockholder class.

READ MORE »

Navigating the Cybersecurity Storm in 2016

Posted by Paul A. Ferrillo, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, on
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
, , , , , , , , , , ,
More from: ,

Paul A. Ferrillo is counsel at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP specializing in complex securities and business litigation. This post is based on a summary of a Weil publication; the complete publication is available here.

“Our nation is being challenged as never before to defend its interests and values in cyberspace. Adversaries increasingly seek to magnify their impact and extend their reach through cyber exploitation, disruption and destruction.”

—Admiral Mike Rogers, Head of US Cyber Command September 9, 2015

A very recent article in the UK publication The Guardian, entitled “Stuxnet-style code signing of malware becomes darknet cottage industry,” [1] raises the specter of bad actors purchasing digital code signatures, enabling their malicious code to be viewed as “trusted” by most operating systems and computers. Two recent high profile hacks utilized false or stolen signatures: Stuxnet, the code used to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program, allegedly jointly developed by America and Israel, and the Sony hack which was allegedly perpetrated by the government of North Korea. Both of these instances involve sovereign states, with effectively unlimited resources.

READ MORE »

The Pursuit of Gender Parity in the American Boardroom

Posted by Mary Jo White, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
, , , , , , , , ,
More from: ,

Mary Jo White is Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The following post is based on Chair White’s recent Keynote Remarks at the Women’s Forum of New York; the full text, including footnotes, is available here. The views expressed in this post are those of Chair White and do not necessarily reflect those of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the other Commissioners, or the Staff.

The Women’s Forum of New York remains the critical, groundbreaking organization for successful women that it was when it held its first meeting in 1974. That was, by coincidence, the year I graduated from Columbia Law School. As one benchmark of progress, that year’s graduating class was only 17 percent women. Today that number is 45 percent and, in some years, it is higher.

We all have indeed come a long way since 1974. Today, women receive more than half of all bachelors’, masters’ and doctorate degrees, and more than a third of MBAs. Women are approximately half of the total workforce and half of all managers. But there remain areas stubbornly resistant to the progress that objectively should have already occurred. One in the legal profession is the percentage of women who are equity partners at law firms—18 percent. That number has only increased two percent since 2006, and we had achieved 12.9 percent back in 1994. Another resistant area is the financial arena—we now account for 29 percent of senior officials in finance and insurance, and no woman has, for example, ever been CEO of one of the 22 largest U.S. investment banks or financial firms. A third critical area that has been a particular priority for the Women’s Forum of New York is the focus of today’s event: gender diversity in U.S. boardrooms.

READ MORE »

Increasing Transparency of Alternative Trading Systems

Posted by Kara M. Stein, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
, , , , , , , , , , ,
More from: ,

Kara M. Stein is a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This post is based on Commissioner Stein’s recent remarks at a recent open meeting of the SEC; the complete publication, including footnotes, is available here. The views expressed in the post are those of Commissioner Stein and do not necessarily reflect those of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the other Commissioners, or the Staff.

Today [November 18, 2015], the Commission meets to consider a proposal to increase the transparency of alternative trading systems (ATS). Many ATSs are commonly referred to as “dark pools”. To most people, dark pools are a little bit of a mystery, and that’s because they often function in great secrecy. Today’s proposal seeks to shine a light into that darkness.

Modern ATSs are a product of the rapid technological advances that have revolutionized the way stocks are bought and sold. An ATS is an electronic order matching system operated by a broker-dealer. Much like an exchange, it brings together buyers and sellers. There are many types of ATSs, and they facilitate the purchase and sale of all types of securities ranging from equities to corporate bonds to Treasuries, and more. Unlike an exchange, which must disclose publicly quotes and prices at which securities transactions occur, an ATS can operate in the dark with only limited information about its operations.

READ MORE »

Page 1 of 5
1 2 3 4 5