Against Mandatory Sunset for Dual Class Firms

By Zohar Goshen January 2, 2019 by renholding

The debate over dual class firms has morphed from an objection to their very legitimacy to a demand to subject them to a mandatory sunset provision. My colleague and friend, Professor John Coffee, believes that dual class firms are undesirable …

A Brief Response

By John C. Coffee, Jr. January 2, 2019 by renholding

Forever is a long time — indeed, too long. That is the essence of my answer to my two friends and colleagues — professors Zohar Goshen and Joshua Mitts — who each argue against mandatory sunset provisions on super-voting stock …

How Does Private Firm Innovation Affect Anti-Takeover Provisions in Corporate Charters?

By Thomas J. Chemmanur, Manish Gupta and Karen Simonyan December 24, 2018 by renholding

The role of anti-takeover provisions (ATPs) in the corporate charters of firms has recently become a matter of considerable debate in the academic literature. On the one hand, earlier studies have argued that ATPs entrench firm management and therefore depress …

The Rise of Asian Equity Markets and the International Corporate Governance Dialogue

By Mats Isaksson December 11, 2018 by renholding

While there is a growing debate in the United States about a shift from public equity markets to private ownership models, Asian stock exchanges are steaming ahead. Last year a record 1,074 companies got listed in the region, and 43 …

How the Regulation of Initial Coin Offerings Shifted from Inactivity to Full Enforcement

By Marco Dell’Erba December 5, 2018 by renholding

In recent years, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a disruptive tool in entrepreneurial finance. ICOs involve the sale of a stake in a project with the aim of raising funds at an early stage of development. Although ICOs …

Do Public and Private Firms Invest Differently?

By Laura Kawano, Elena Patel and Nirupama Rao November 2, 2018 by renholding

Equity markets are an important source of capital financing for firms, particularly in the United States. These large, liquid markets channel capital from savers to firms and facilitate corporate investment by distributing risks among many smaller investors. There is concern, …

Why Do Firms Go Public Through Debt Instead of Equity?

By Denys Glushkov, Ajay Khorana, P. Raghavendra Rau and Jingxuan Zhang September 7, 2018 by renholding

Private firms can gain access to capital markets in several ways. The most well-known approach is through an initial public offering (IPO) of equity, and high-profile firms typically attract a large amount of attention from the popular press when they …

Rumors of the Death of U.S. Public Companies Are Greatly Exaggerated

By Brian Cheffins September 4, 2018 by renholding

As of 2017, 172 of America’s 200 largest companies, ranked by revenue, were publicly traded. Public company dominance of the corporate economy of the United States has existed for decades. There has been much speculation recently that this era may …

SEC Chair Clayton Talks Capital Formation

By Jay Clayton August 30, 2018 by renholding

I am delighted to participate in the 36|86 Entrepreneurship Festival here in Nashville, Tennessee. I would like to speak for about 25 minutes about key capital formation initiatives at the SEC.[1] After my remarks, I will be joined by

…

Thinking Holistically Before Dropping Quarterly Reporting

By James D. Cox August 27, 2018 by renholding

Robust capital markets are widely believed to signal economic vitality, and a reliable barometer of such vitality was historically a rising number of IPOs and listings. Yet, as we are experiencing record setting economic expansion, that barometer has failed us. …

Voluntary Disclosure and Firm Visibility: Evidence from Initial Public Offerings

By Michael Dambra, Bryce Schonberger and Charles Wasley August 23, 2018 by renholding

Legal academics and practitioners have long emphasized the important role that disclosure plays in the initial public offering (IPO) process. Issuers and their underwriters provide information via a prospectus and corresponding IPO roadshow to mitigate the information gap between the …

How Unionization Affects IPO Pricing

By Antonios Chantziaras, Dimitrios Gounopoulos and Stergios Leventis July 26, 2018 by renholding

In 2000, Overnite Transportation Co. halted its IPO because of a highly disruptive 10-month strike by the Teamsters’ Union. Teamster officials said they had achieved some gains through the strike, noting that Overnite had increased its employees’ hourly wages by …

How Dual Class Share Structures Affect Innovation

By Lindsay Baran, Arno Forst and M. Tony Via July 16, 2018 by renholding

In a new paper, we seek to fill a gap in research on the possible benefits of dual class share structures and how they might promote innovation. We start with a bit of history.

Shareholder democracy has been fundamental to …

How Exchange Listing Affects Corporate Governance

By Dan W. French, Andrew E. Kern, Thibaut G. Morillon and Adam S. Yore June 25, 2018 by renholding

On April 3, 2018, the Swedish online music company Spotify Technology disrupted the traditional initial public offering (IPO) marketplace when it directly listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “SPOT.” With a valuation …

The Irrepressible Myth That SEC Overregulation Has Chilled IPOs

By John C. Coffee, Jr. May 29, 2018 by renholding

The following is an abbreviated version of Professor Coffee’s May 23 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investments. The deleted portions of his testimony relate to the specific content of proposed bills to …

Gibson Dunn Discusses SIFMA Report on Helping More Companies Go and Stay Public

By Glenn Pollner, Hillary Holmes, Jessica Annis and Nicolas Dumont May 16, 2018 by renholding

On April 27, 2018, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”), the leading industry group representing broker-dealers, banks and asset managers, along with other securities industry related groups, released a report called “Expanding the On-Ramp: Recommendations to Help More …

The Middle-Market IPO Tax

By Robert J. Jackson, Jr. April 26, 2018 by renholding

It’s a real honor to be here with you today at the Greater Cleveland Middle Market Forum.* In addition to leading some of the nation’s most promising young companies, you all have done exceptional work making sure that the …

Blue Sky Banter Podcast: SEC’s Robert Jackson on Dual Class Shares and More

By Reynolds Holding April 19, 2018 by renholding

Robert Jackson, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a former professor at Columbia Law School, speaks with Reynolds Holding about becoming a commissioner, the problem of perpetual dual class stock, and what the commission can do

…

Sticking Around Too Long? Dynamics of the Benefits of Dual-Class Structures

By Hyunseob Kim and Roni Michaely April 12, 2018 by renholding

Lawyers and academics generally have a dim view of dual-class share structures. When Snap Inc., a technology-based social media company, was preparing for its initial public offering (IPO) in early 2017, for example, CalPERS and many other prominent institutional investors …

Stock Market Indices: Inside the Black Box

By Anita Anand and Adriana Z. Robertson March 21, 2018 by renholding

The news that a whistleblower contacted U.S. regulators last month about alleged manipulation of the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX, highlights near universal reliance on information that stock market indices provide. While the VIX is not itself …

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