Sky Blog
On September 18, 2014, Gibson Dunn hosted a webcast on shareholder activism. In addition to partners Eduardo Gallardo, Beth Ising and Adam Offenhartz, Matthew Sherman from Joele Frank and Scott Winter from Innisfree M&A also participated. Topics covered include current …
SUMMARY
On September 22, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) and the Treasury Department (the “Treasury”) issued Notice 2014-52 (the “Notice”) announcing that the Treasury and the IRS intend to issue regulations that will address inversion transactions and certain …
Hedge fund activism has increased almost hyperbolically. Some view this optimistically as a means for bridging the separation of ownership and control; others are more pessimistic, seeing mainly wealth transfers from bondholders or speculative expectations of a takeover as fueling …
On September 8, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a federal antitrust complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against defendants AbbVie, Abbott Laboratories, Unimed Pharmaceuticals, Besins Healthcare and Teva Pharmaceuticals alleging violations …
The following post comes to us from Susan Chaplinsky, Tipton R. Snavely Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business; Kathleen Weiss Hanley, Visiting Associate Professor of Finance and Senior Academic Advisor to the Center …
On September 2, 2014, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) issued final guidelines (the “Guidelines”) establishing risk management standards for large national banks, insured federal savings associations, and insured federal branches of foreign banks (each, a …
On September 3rd, the prudential regulators (including the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC) re-proposed the second major element of derivatives reform – mandatory margin on uncleared swaps. The re-proposed rule is designed to end years of debate that began with …
The following post comes to us from John C. Coates IV, John F. Cogan Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School. It is based on two of his recent articles, “Cost-Benefit Analysis of Financial Regulation: Case Studies …
Why haven’t the significant financial and technological innovations of the past thirty years substantially decreased the cost of financial intermediation? What explains the ever-increasing complexity of financial products and markets? Why do so many investors hold actively managed mutual funds …
The following post comes to us from John M. Conley, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, and Cynthia A. Williams, Osler Chair in Business Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, …
On June 13, 2014, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the “agencies”) issued a final version of an addendum to the …
The following post comes to us from Andrew Verstein, Assistant Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law. It is based on his recent article, “The Law and Economics of Benchmark Manipulation,” which is forthcoming in the Boston …
Summary
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $896,000 concerning its conversion of notes into voting securities of USG Corporation in December 2013, which was more than five years after Berkshire’s HSR Act filing to acquire …
On July 23, 2014, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS), the governmental agency that regulates the financial services and insurance industries in New York, released proposed regulations governing the use of virtual currencies in New York State …
The following post comes to us from Ronald Masulis, Scientia Professor of Finance at the Australian School of Business. It is based on his recent paper, Trading Rules, Competition for Order Flow and Market Fragmentation, which is co-authored by Amy …
On July 21, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) accepted a consent agreement, subject to final approval, to settle charges with two Internet resellers of Universal Product Code (UPC) barcodes accused of violating Section 5 of the FTC …
With the stock market regularly surpassing record highs, housing prices surging 13.6 percent in 2013 alone, and unemployment down to 6.7 percent, it is easy to forget just how dire the economic outlook appeared just five years ago. It is …
With over $186 billion in average daily trading volume, the To-Be-Announced (“TBA”) market serves as a significant funding and hedging vehicle for consumer mortgage origination. Although a large portion of the TBA market is comprised of highly liquid agency MBS, …
High frequency trading has more enemies than friends, but the key question is what are the costs of reform. Attorney General Schneiderman’s pending suit against Barclays PLC for allegedly misrepresenting that its dark pool (known as “LX”) was “safe” from …
For nearly 15 years, the United States has had the worldwide corruption enforcement stage to itself, reaping billions of dollars in fines and settlement payments from companies that have acknowledged engaging in bribery in foreign countries. That monopoly, however, may …