Sky Blog
M&A activity in January 2017 showed mixed results, with the global M&A market generally down and the U.S. M&A market generally up. Total deal volume as measured by dollar value decreased globally by 26.9% to $280.97 billion, but increased in …
President Trump made many statements during the campaign regarding actions he plans to take to reverse Obama administration sanctions policies.[1] These included revisiting the agreement to ease sanctions on Iran, rolling back the sanctions program against Russia, and reversing …
Swaps transactions, virtually unregulated before the 2008 financial crisis, are regulated in the U.S. under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act. Title VII empowers the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), for most swaps, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, for …
Operating risk is a major concern for firm management and stakeholders. Stark examples of losses due to corporate operations include BP’s $17.2 billion loss in June 2010 following the Deepwater Horizon incident (Wong and Yousuf, 2010) and Freeport-McMoRan’s $13.9 billion …
On February 3, 2017, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) released the findings of its “Merger Remedy Study” (the FTC Study) which examined the effectiveness of Commission-required remedies in transactions from 2006 to 2012.[1] The FTC Study—its …
State securities laws—generally referred to as “blue sky laws”— contain both registration provisions and antifraud provisions. Registration provisions require that a company offering its securities to investors in a particular state register its securities with the state or meet the …
China’s antitrust regulators have continued to increase their enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) in 2016. Given the high level of scrutiny in this area and the current legal environment in China, compliance with the AML should be a priority …
How much do corporate insiders make on their trades? It has long been shown that insiders realize significant positive abnormal returns on their transactions, in percentage terms. Surprisingly, however, there has been little research examining insiders’ dollar profits, even …
In recent years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has focused on using quantitative analysis to identify statistical outliers and anomalies through programs like the Aberrational Performance Inquiry, which evaluates hedge fund returns,[1] and the Accounting Quality Model (informally known …
Less than two weeks into the new congressional session, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a vote of 239 to 182 the Commodity End-User Relief Act1 (the Bill or House Bill), marking the first step by the new …
In the fall of 2016, UFP, LLC, d/b/a uFundingPortal (UFP), became the subject of FINRA’s first enforcement action against a registered funding portal. During the course of the investigation, UFP shut down its website and withdrew its registration as a …
“What does Sarbanes-Oxley mean? That’s when two members of U.S. Congress fiddle and half a million accountants in Europe start dancing.”[1]
President Donald Trump pledged during his electoral campaign to repeal some of the reforms that came about …
On January 19, 2017, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) Division of Enforcement (the “Division”) issued two Enforcement Advisories setting forth the factors that the Division may consider in assessing cooperation by companies and …
Much of the public has long believed that executives are overcompensated, a sentiment that has occasionally crept into legislation. In one case, Congress voted to impose punitive excise taxes on managers who received excessive golden parachute payments. Unlike most taxes …
2016 was, by any measure, an extraordinary year for the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission assessed a record-shattering total of nearly $2.5 billion in penalties. But despite those …
An M&A appraisal case before the Delaware Supreme Court has drawn amicus briefs from two groups of esteemed professors — including three from Columbia Law School — with opposing views on how a company should be valued.
The case involves …
On January 13, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) and the Treasury Department (the “Treasury”) published new final and temporary regulations (the “New Regulations”) and issued a notice of proposed rulemaking by cross-reference to the temporary regulations that address …
While a major overhaul of U.S. financial regulation may be unlikely during the early months of the Trump administration, changes should be expected as his nominees to lead the Treasury Department and financial regulatory agencies are confirmed. This will be …
President Donald Trump’s campaign proposals included changes to tax rates and a promise to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act. If enacted, these proposals could have a significant impact on the way businesses handle executive compensation, permitting companies greater flexibility in structuring …