Columbia Law School
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unicorns
Legal Guardrails for a Unicorn Crackdown
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,” …
Unicorniphobia
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 …
Taming Unicorns
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 …
What to Do About Poor Corporate Governance at Unicorns
Why are large private companies often characterized by poor corporate governance? WeWork provides a recent high-profile example. For reasons that now seem implausible, WeWork attracted billions of investment dollars. Perhaps it was the company’s “vision” or the sheer personality of …
Alternative Venture Capital: The New Unicorn Investors
The COVID-19 outbreak provides fertile ground for sweeping regulatory changes. On May 19, 2020, for example, President Trump issued “Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery Executive Order 13924”, which prompted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Department …
How Categorizing Companies as Unicorns Affects Their IPOs
Managers, investors, the financial press, and other capital market participants often use categories to describe firms or their securities. Common examples include “bellwether,” “blue chip,” “tech,” “penny,” and “start-up.” Although these categories may increase a firm’s visibility, they can lead …