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

Information, Analysts, and Stock Return Comovement

Stocks followed by more analysts should be priced more accurately, yet their returns are unusually prone to co-move with market and industry indexes. Stocks that co-move more are often thought to be related to herding. This is because more informed trading ought to make a firm’s stock price move with the changing fortunes of that […]

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The Dutch Poison Pill: How is it Different from an American Rights Plan?

During the spring and summer of this year, the so-called “Dutch Poison Pill” made it to the front pages of the business sections of The New York Times [1] and The Wall Street Journal. [2] The Dutch Poison Pill received this extraordinary attention because of its use by Mylan N.V. (“Mylan”), a NASDAQ-quoted Dutch public […]

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Posted in Boards of Directors, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Corporate Elections & Voting, Court Cases, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Dutch Poison Pill: How is it Different from an American Rights Plan?

Executive Optimism, Option Exercise, and Share Retention

Optimism shows up as a pervasive bias in experimental and real-life settings. In the business world, executive optimism is believed to influence a wide range of corporate decisions and policies. However, determining whether an executive is optimistic is not straightforward. Corporate communications featuring key executives can be heavily rehearsed, with words carefully chosen to hide […]

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Insider Trading and Tender Offers

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 […]

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Insider Trading and Innovation

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 […]

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SEC Guidance on Voting During M&A Transactions

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, […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on SEC Guidance on Voting During M&A Transactions

The Fed’s Finalized Liquidity Reporting Requirements

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] […]

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Does Majority Voting Improve Board Accountability?

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 […]

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Shedding Light on Dark Pools

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 […]

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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, HLS Research, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation, Speeches & Testimony | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Shedding Light on Dark Pools

Rural/Metro and Disclosure Settlements

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, […]

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