Sky Blog
Over the past few decades, chief executive officer (CEO) pay has risen spectacularly, as has debate regarding why this has occurred and whether policy should or can correct it. Yet one glaring fact about the C-Suite eludes much of the …
Do companies adopt optimal governance arrangements when they go public? This question has been a hotly debated topic in corporate law and governance and one that I examine in a recent paper.
At the time of an initial public offering …
The widely accepted primary purpose of corporations is to maximize profit or value to shareholders, otherwise known as “shareholder primacy.” Shareholder primacy represents not only the prevalent objective of corporations but also a norm: A seminal case in corporate law, …
Political activities of corporations are increasingly subject to scrutiny on environmental, social and governance (ESG) grounds. Demands that corporations and their political action committees (PACs) justify their contributions based on candidates’ voting records on ESG issues came to the fore …
“Dollar cost averaging” is an investment strategy whereby investors spread a desired investment amount into periodic investments over a period of time, which mitigates the price risk inherent in investing the entire amount at an inopportune moment. Virtually all public …
On February 7, 2022, Delaware’s governor signed a bill amending the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) to expressly authorize Delaware corporations to purchase and maintain directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability insurance by or through captive insurance companies. This amendment, described …
Considerable controversy has surrounded the Supreme Court’s sharply divided decisions in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby. Critics argue that giving business corporations unwarranted constitutional protections entrenches corporate power at the expense of democracy by putting legal fictions on the …
CEOs, in particular founder-CEOs, are often visionaries with strong beliefs about the right strategic direction for their firms. For example, Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs was known to be obsessed with product quality and design. The strategy to produce …
On January 3, 2021, in In re MultiPlan Corp. Stockholders Litigation,[1] the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion to dismiss a complaint brought by SPAC stockholders against the SPAC, its sponsor and its directors. Plaintiffs alleged that …
In October of 2021, news media across the world reported on what was said to be the largest leak ever of offshore data, exposing the rampant use of anonymous shell companies by the rich and the powerful. Branded the Pandora …
Related party transactions (RPTs) are a common corporate governance concern that cuts across many jurisdictions but remains hard to regulate. Allowing value-increasing RPTs while preventing the value-decreasing ones in a cost-effective way is a challenging task for regulators. Jurisdictions do …
Research has shown that venture capital (VC) firms substantially influence the overall economy. According to Gornall and Strebulaev (2021), among all U.S. public companies founded since 1968, VC-backed companies account for 77 percent of total market capitalization, 41 percent of …
Last year, major investors took unprecedented steps through engagement efforts and proxy voting to demonstrate their commitment to addressing the climate transition and board and workforce diversity and inclusion, with focus given to disclosure and reporting of key ESG metrics …
Corporate earnings are an important source of information for many market participants, yet managers have a certain degree of discretion over the earnings that they report. Given this discretion, there is a large literature that tries to understand whether firms …
We are witnessing a shift in global economic activity from advanced markets to emerging ones. According to the World Bank Group (2021) Global Economic Prospects report, emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) have experienced higher real gross domestic product (GDP) …
Dear CEO,
Each year I make it a priority to write to you on behalf of BlackRock’s clients, who are shareholders in your company. The majority of our clients are investing to finance retirement. Their time horizons can span decades.
In many ways, 2021 was a high-water mark for corporate activism. The levels of traditional shareholder activism rebounded from the lows reached during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. M&A activism increased substantially as shareholder activists sought to capitalize …
Almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that the corporate workplace has changed for good. As the world continues to reopen and companies return to the office, what we are returning to is not business as usual, …
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis) have each issued their respective proxy voting guidelines for 2022, which include a number of noteworthy revisions, summarized below. The ISS updates are available here and will apply …
SPACs are on fire. Scholars and commentators have pointed out the flaws of SPACs, including the various agency problems they generate (Klausner 2021), and their utilization by sophisticated investors to take advantage of unsophisticated investors (Spamann, …