Sky Blog
Even in the best of times, corporate leaders gripe about the cost of government regulations. An average hedge fund spends more than 7 percent of its total operating costs on various forms of compliance.[1] For the banking industry, compliance …
We have continued our efforts to help facilitate the orderly and fair market function, including in coordination with our colleagues at the Federal Reserve and Treasury.[1]
Market activity has remained active in June and thus
The Delaware Supreme Court’s recent decision in Fir Tree v. Jarden[1] marks an important milestone in the law of appraisal, making clear that unaffected market price can and should be decisive in some appraisal actions. Because the court’s opinion …
Following their January publication of Draft Vertical Merger Guidelines (draft guidelines) for public comment, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) (collectively, the agencies) issued final Vertical Merger Guidelines (Guidelines) on June 30, 2020.1 This marks …
From its February 2020 peak to a March 2020 trough, the S&P 500 index fell 34 percent. This fall was accompanied by extreme volatility, at a level last seen during the global financial crisis. Invariably the selloff was accompanied by …
Notwithstanding the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and market participants, from the perspective of regulators, working groups and industry leaders, the anticipated cessation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) remains the end of calendar year 2021.[1]…
The global financial crisis highlighted the interconnectedness of international financial markets and the risk of contagion it posed. The crisis also emphasized the importance of supranational regulation and regulatory cooperation to help address and ameliorate that risk.
Yet, although capital …
The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant financial distress for many businesses and there have been a number of bankruptcy filings recently,[1] with more likely on the horizon. As a result, there is likely to be an increase in acquisitions …
CEO activism – CEOs expressing their views on social, environmental, and political issues – is growing, likely driven by popular opinion that CEOs have a duty to stand up for important issues of the day. A 2018 survey of 3,544 …
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Keir [Gumbs], for the kind introduction, and thank you to the Society for Corporate Governance for the invitation to speak today. I had been looking forward to seeing everyone in Colorado this week but, of
In corporate democracy, the default system for electing directors is voting, but shareholders are free to commit their votes by contract. In private companies, shareholders routinely do so, using shareholder agreements – contracts among the owners of a firm – …
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I would like to thank the Exchequer Club for hosting this event, and I look forward to future events taking us back to the luncheon discussions at the Mayflower Hotel, as has been the club’s
In the public imagination, Wirecard was Germany’s biggest tech company success story – a €24 billion high-growth payment processor doing deals across the globe and pioneering new technologies. While naysayers complained about its opaque corporate and financial practices and raised …
The past six months have been marked by a profound upheaval that has accelerated the growing focus on both the purpose of the corporation and the role of the board in overseeing and leading the corporation in ways that promote …
Two extraordinary accounting scandals — one at Luckin Coffee Inc. in China and the other at Wirecard AG, the German digital payments firm — have revealed brazen and bankrupting frauds, directed by the most senior executives at each firm. Together, …
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission released a final version of the agencies’ updated Vertical Merger Guidelines. The updated Guidelines are broadly consistent with the draft Guidelines the DOJ and FTC released in …
In a new paper,[1] we study the impact on U.S. stock prices of news stories about accusations that several members of Congress traded ahead of private material information about COVID-19. The lawmakers traded stocks during the early stages of …
In re Dell Technologies Inc. Class V Stockholders Litigation (June 11, 2020) can be viewed as a routine decision analyzing the MFW prerequisites to post-closing review of a transaction proposed by a controlled company under the deferential business judgment standard. …
Many studies of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) have attempted to explain the decline of a company’s stock price after it announces an SEO (see, e.g., Asquith and Mullins (1986) or Masulis and Korwar (1986)). The literature has focused on the …
On 22 June 2020, the UK Government introduced new measures allowing it to intervene in merger transactions “to maintain in the United Kingdom the capability to combat, and to mitigate the effects of, public health emergencies.”[1] The Government will …