Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Global Antitakeover and Antiactivist Devices

Corporate activity is becoming ever more global. The increase in global activity is reflected both in the growing number of cross-border M&A transactions (which have reached over $1 trillion in the first half of 2018) and the pervasive phenomenon of cross-listing, through which companies raise equity from various financial markets located in different jurisdictions. In […]

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Posted in Academic Research, HLS Research, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Global Antitakeover and Antiactivist Devices

The SEC’s Market Abuse Enforcement Priorities

Since January 2017, the SEC has quietly racked up at least half a dozen major enforcement actions charging a wide range of equity market structure violations. In these cases, dark pools, exchanges and broker-dealers have collectively paid more than $100 million in civil penalties and several of them have involved admissions of liability. Although the […]

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Purpose & Profit

Dear CEO, Each year, I write to the companies in which BlackRock invests on behalf of our clients, the majority of whom have decades-long horizons and are planning for retirement. As a fiduciary to these clients, who are the owners of your company, we advocate for practices that we believe will drive sustainable, long-term growth […]

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Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century

BlackRock, Inc. (“BlackRock”) appreciates the opportunity to comment in connection with the eighth session of the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC” or the “Commission”) hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century. We welcome the FTC’s Hearings Initiative and efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of competition and consumer protection law, enforcement priorities, and public […]

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Market Power and Inequality

For over a century, the idea of the United States as a “nation of shareholders” has been a powerful one. This notion has its roots in attempts by the New York Stock Exchange to broaden its political base by ensuring that more Americans owned at least a handful of stocks, and Cold War comparisons of […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Empirical Research | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Expansion of Regulation A

On December 19, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) adopted amendments to Regulation A allowing U.S. and Canadian companies that file reports under Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), to conduct securities offerings using Regulation A. The amendments were mandated by the Economic […]

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Remarks at FTC Hearing on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century

Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to speak on institutional investors, diversification, and corporate governance. I make my comments from the perspective of a practitioner in asset management. Investment Stewardship Investment stewardship is a critical element of the corporate accountability chain that empowers shareholders to engage and vote on issues relevant to the […]

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Directors: Older and Wiser, or Too Old to Govern?

The past two decades have witnessed dramatic changes to the boards of directors of U.S. public corporations. Several recent governance reforms (the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the revised 2003 NYSE/Nasdaq listing rules, and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act) combined with a rise in shareholder activism have enhanced director qualifications and independence and made boards more accountable. These […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Boards of Directors, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Empirical Research | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Corporate Governance Survey: 2018 Proxy Season

Since 2003, Fenwick has collected a unique body of information on the corporate governance practices of publicly traded companies that is useful for Silicon Valley companies and publicly‑traded technology and life science companies across the U.S. as well as public companies and their advisors generally. Fenwick’s annual survey covers a variety of corporate governance practices […]

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Another Look at “Super Options”

On Jan. 21, 2018, Tesla granted to its co-founder and chief executive officer, Elon Musk, a performance-based stock option to acquire shares equal to 12 percent of Tesla shares outstanding at the time of grant. This option was discussed in two columns published by the author in the New York Law Journal (May 1 and […]

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