Sky Blog
For the last year, a heated ownership battle has been unfolding between Comcast and 20th Century Fox in their contest to acquire Sky PLC. Sky is Europe’s leading media company and the largest pay-TV broadcaster in the UK, with …
As the March 29, 2019 deadline approaches, the United Kingdom prepares its withdrawal from the European Union amidst political turbulence that would suit a television drama.[1] Center stage is what to do about the financial services industry. For the …
The Financial Reporting Council on July 16 issued a revised corporate governance code and announced that a revised investor stewardship code will be issued before year-end. The code and related materials are available at www.frc.org.uk.
The revised code contains …
Thank you, Robert [Hodgkinson] for the kind introduction. Thank you, also, to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (“ICAEW”) for sponsoring this event. I am delighted to be in London and with you this afternoon. London continues …
Post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) is a well-documented and puzzlingly persistent market anomaly. Companies that report earnings higher than expected typically experience an upward drift in their stock prices while those that report earnings below what was anticipated see a downward …
The recent announcements from major institutional investors about issues such as gender diversity and climate change seem like reactions to social ills. But they are not unmoored from investing. They are logical expressions of a relatively newly empowered, third phase …
Consistent with predictions made in the late 1980s, the buyout market has grown tremendously and, together with the private equity (PE) model, has become a global phenomenon. One consequence of the maturity of the market is substantial secondary management buyout …
In the United Kingdom, successive codes of best practice in corporate governance have highlighted the important role of outside or non-executive directors in ensuring that corporations are run for the benefit of their shareholders. While the first code of best …
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced proposals to tighten its jurisdiction over mergers in the military, quantum technology and computing hardware industries. The changes, which are subject to a consultation period through April 12, 2018, would lower …
Central bank law is an unloved part of public law. Maybe that’s because commercial litigators cannot sue central banks, advise the people that sell bonds to them, or argue cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to create new …
If all goes well with its February 28 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Spotify will be the first firm to go public in the U.S. via a direct listing on a stock exchange. Simply put, this means that, …
Corporate governance has traditionally been viewed as a way to reduce agency costs between shareholders and managers in the context of private ordering. Laws and regulations pertaining to corporate governance have, therefore, typically aimed to enhance long-term wealth for shareholders.…
Auditors consider misstatements or omissions in financial statements to be material if they could influence the economic decisions of financial statement users. Additionally, materiality affects how auditors plan and perform an audit and evaluate identified misstatements. Regulators in the UK …
Amid the uncertainty Brexit has created, foreign investors are assessing their existing and prospective investments in the UK, with particular focus on Brexit’s potential impact on EU-UK trade and labor mobility. No one has a crystal ball but our MoFo …
Insider trading and market manipulation — two of the most high-profile categories of financial misconduct — have resulted in several major cases, and significant sanctions in recent years. Our recent article examines the type, frequency, and severity of sanctions imposed …
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) has published changes to the Conduct of Business sourcebook (“COBS”) to boost the transparency of the IPO process and tackle conflicts of interest that may arise from the interaction between an issuer and …
Takeover transactions are often the most significant activity affecting corporations and their shareholders. Accordingly, there are intense debates about the value and impact of takeovers and the extent to which law should regulate such transactions. One area of focus for …
In the last few years, a source of financing for start-ups, known as crowdfunding, has become widely available. It involves raising capital from a large number of individuals, each of whom typically contributes a small sum. The internet has lowered …
On September 13, 2017, the European Commission issued a proposed Regulation establishing a framework for screening foreign investments into the European Union.[1] The Commission also issued an explanatory memorandum and a communication to the European Parliament and other relevant …
The degree to which business participants ought to be free to limit or eliminate fiduciary duties and associated liabilities remains a hotly contested matter in many jurisdictions. In a new chapter forthcoming in Edward Elgar’s Research Handbook on Fiduciary Law…