Special purposes acquisition corporations (also known as SPACs or blank check companies) have received a lot of attention recently – and for good reason. SPACs accounted for more than half of U.S. IPOs in 2020, raising over $70 billion in …

Angel investors (angels) and venture capital (VC) investors are both important sources of financing for entrepreneurial firms, but some critics, particularly VCs, often believe that angels are less able than VCs to perform due-diligence. However, an alternative view holds that …

Once upon a time, a successful startup that reached a certain maturity would “go public” – selling securities to ordinary investors, perhaps listing on a national stock exchange, and taking on the privileges and obligations of a public company under …

In recent years, investors and others in the financial community have devoted increasing attention to the role of sustainability in financial markets and the economy at large. Sustainability is now seen as an alternative form of risk management, a way …

We study the relative usefulness of earnings announcements for valuation from the perspective of information externalities: the use of industry peer information for valuation, particularly for IPO pricing. Externalities of accounting information are one of the primary justifications for disclosure …

Public securities markets have undergone dramatic changes in recent years. Not only has the number of publicly traded firms been declining, but the nature of the firms that choose to go public has also changed. While publicly traded firms in …

Until the last decade, most startups that grew to become valuable businesses chose to go public. Late-stage startups with reported valuations over $1 billion used to be so rare that venture capitalist Aileen Lee called them “unicorns.” When she coined …

Although it has been used in the past, the resurgence of the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) has been spectacular in the last two years. According to its promoters, a SPAC offers relatively easy access to a listing on a …

In 2020, the number of IPOs by a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) set records: A total of 248 SPAC IPOs raised over $75 billion. The boom continues in 2021: Each of January and February has seen over 90 SPAC …

Disclosure and internal governance regulations are, along with accounting rules, distinguishing features of the public firm.  Deregulation agendas such as those of the Trump administration typically assume that many regulations on public firms have imposed high compliance costs.  Such arguments …

In our recent paper, Can Governance Help in Making an IPO “Successful”? New Evidence from Europe, we find that corporate governance affects company performance after an IPO in different ways.  We consider an IPO to be successful if it …

The European Commission retained Ernst & Young (“EY”) to undertake a detailed study of “short-termism” and, implicitly, to report whether it was a major roadblock to more sustainable corporate governance. Their study was then presented at a three day international …