In 2019, the three largest American stock exchange groups, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq, and Cboe (formerly known as the Chicago Board Options Exchange) sued their regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).1 The lawsuit was over the SEC’s Transaction Fee Pilot.2 The novelty of suing one’s own regulator was not lost on the…
Tag: Capital Markets
Who wants to go public, anyway?
For decades, the conventional wisdom on the public offering’s place in a firm’s lifecycle has been a rather linear story. As a company matures and its capital expenditure needs increase over time, it can afford – and thus take advantage of – raising funds in public capital markets. The first time a company sells equity…
SPAC: The Mechanics of a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (Part IV of IV)
Editor’s Note: This blog series is presented in four parts.1 In this fourth edition, the author presents an analysis of the reality of SPAC performance, and its causes. Given the potential advantages to parties involved in a SPAC transaction, it becomes necessary to consider whether these advantages translate into an actual benefit in the real…
SPAC: The Mechanics of a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (Part III of IV)
Editor’s Note: This blog series is presented in four parts. In this third edition, the author provides a brief overview of the mechanics of a SPAC transaction. At its most basic level, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) is nothing more than a set of filings with securities regulators. The SPAC, like its…
SPAC: An Introduction to the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (Part I of IV)
Editor’s Note: This blog series is presented in four parts. The first, below, is an introduction to a new strategy in the realm of IPOs, the special purpose acquisition company. On February 29th, 2016, $450 million of investors’ money was raised in the initial public offering of Silver Run Acquisition Corporation.1 At the time…
A Market of Milliseconds: Unraveling the Tangled Future of High-Frequency Trading
In an increasingly digital society, innovative technology that yields speed and efficiency can serve to spark industry-wide trends and influence future practice for years, even decades, thereafter. When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod in 2001, for example, Apple earned worldwide acclaim and provoked an incredible proliferation of similar devices.1 What, then, can be made…
Despite Outstanding Growth Prospects, Alibaba’s IPO Fraught with Risk
Although few retail investors in the United States have even heard of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, anticipation on Wall Street this week for the company’s forthcoming I.P.O. is palpable.1 Touted by many as a uniquely positioned hybrid of eBay, Amazon, and Google, the company announced its plans earlier this year to go public in New…