Sky Blog
On September 27, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced charges against six public company insiders for failing to timely report information about their holdings and transactions in company securities. Five publicly traded companies were also charged with …
On June 1, 2023, the Ninth Circuit held en banc that a forum selection clause requiring all derivative claims to be brought in Delaware state court—including federal securities claims that can only be maintained in federal court—is enforceable and requires …
In April of last year, as described in this press release, the SEC filed a complaint against Vale S.A., a publicly traded (NYSE) Brazilian mining company and one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, charging that it made “false …
The SEC is undertaking an historic effort to redraw the boundary between public and private companies. After years of watching – and sometimes encouraging – the explosive growth in less tightly regulated private markets and the proliferation of so-called “unicorns,” …
The JOBS Act was signed into law on April 5, 2012, with the objective of improving access to the public capital market for growth companies. Title I of the JOBS Act amended the Securities Act and the Exchange Act and …
On December 11, 2020, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, H.R. 6395 (the “NDAA”). The $740.5 billion bill includes language amending the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) to provide the SEC with …
On October 7, 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Notice of Proposed Exemptive Order Granting Conditional Exemption from the Broker Registration Requirements of Section 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for Certain Activities of …
On July 10, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a 35-fold increase – from $100 million to $3.5 billion – in the threshold for requiring institutional investment managers to publicly report their equity holdings on Form 13F.[1] This …
COVID-19 has led companies to patch-up financial reporting by adding estimates of pre-COVID-19 profits to their EBITDA. Recently, COVID-19 prompted measuring-equipment manufacturer Schenck Process, for example, to add back €5.4 million, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA of €18.3 …
Companies that face non-public government investigations frequently confront challenging questions regarding whether and when to disclose the existence of the investigation, how much to disclose, and any duty to update the disclosure as the investigation proceeds. On the one hand, …
Traditionally, securities fraud has been civilly enforced under Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, and criminally prosecuted under Section 32 of the Exchange Act. Recently, however, the SEC has increasingly asserted claims under Section 17(a)(2) …
Crypto trading platforms worldwide should be aware of recent SEC actions if they provide access to US persons or persons within the US for trading.
Global financial regulatory authorities have begun to take action and release guidance regarding the emerging …
Last week, a federal district court judge in New York overseeing several multidistrict litigation (“MDL”) proceedings dismissed all claims against Barclays PLC, Barclays Capital Inc., and several major U.S. stock exchanges (the “Exchanges”), including NASDAQ, the New York Stock Exchange, …
The CFTC recently approved a futures contract on a dividend index as a non-security based index futures contract over the SEC’s objection that the dividend index contract could be a security future; the CFTC’s actions may have implications for market …
In the paper “Equity Crowdfunding: A Market for Lemons?”, recently made publicly available on SSRN, I take a comprehensive look at crowdfunding’s place in entrepreneurial finance. I begin by observing that angel investors and venture capitalists (VCs) have funded Google, …
In connection with a meeting of stockholders, many companies face the decision of whether and how to prepare and file supplemental or amended proxy materials.
The decision to supplement or amend, and how to deliver the message, is guided as …
[Two weeks ago], the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed rules to implement Title V and Title VI of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the JOBS Act). [1] Specifically, the SEC proposed to revise the rules governing registration, termination …