The United States Supreme Court recently heard a case on climate change that may help determine the fate of many similar lawsuits across the country. In July 2018, the Mayor and City of Baltimore filed suit in Maryland state court against over two dozen oil and gas companies. The state [...]
Image credit: scale.com Scale AI is a data labeling startup headed by 23-year old Alex Wang. Its value is now $3.5 billion. The four-year-old startup raised a $155 million Series D funding round led by Tiger Global Management. Based in San Francisco, its customers include Airbnb, General Motors, DoorDash, Nvidia, [...]
Image credit: Lareina Giles Regulation Fair Disclosure is a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule. It prohibits companies from selectively disclosing material non-public information (MNPI) to investment professionals or key shareholders. Sometimes as simply Reg FD, the rule states that companies cannot selectively share MNPI with certain individuals covered [...]
On December 31, 2020, the Trump administration announced in an executive order concerning the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The order states that the NYSE would be delisting three foreign companies that are Chinese telecom giants. This move came in the wake of ongoing tension between the U.S. and China [...]
The total value of U.S. retail deals last year reached $36 billion—roughly three times the $13.9 billion of in 2019. This was despite the pandemic, or perhaps in part because of itThis growth came after year-over-year declines in both 2018 and 2019. This information comes from the M&A insights tool [...]
Image credit: Suhail Haque The record IPO surge in the second half of 2020 looks set to extend well into 2021. The IPO euphoria, particularly with respect to tech companies, has defied expectations. Utah-based Qualtrics is a customer-relationship management software company. It has entered the arena with its announcement of [...]
NYDIG is a financial services firm that trades in Bitcoin. The firm announced this week that it has acquired crypto data firm Digital Assets Data. The acquisition is part of its grand initiative to expand its platform. NYDIG says that the acquisition adds to its “best-in-class platform for institutions, hedge [...]
A wave of large deals in the last few weeks of 2020 drove global mergers and acquisitions to the $3.6tn mark in 2020. It’s an impressive rebound of M&A activity in the second half of the year. Financial Times reports that the 2020 total value of M&A transactions is down [...]
Tyco Fire Products is a company known for manufacturing and testing firefighting foam containing “forever chemicals.” Recently, it settled with hundreds of homeowners over contamination found in private drinking wells, specifically Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFAS, which is also known as “C8.”). The company agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit with 271 [...]
The lack of gender and racial diversity at the highest levels of corporate America has long been an issue. A recent board diversity survey of 3,000 of the largest publicly traded companies yielded disappointing findings. The survey revealed that women make up a mere 21% of corporate board seats and [...]
The New Mexico Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments on whether businesses can sue the state for compensation due to COVID-19 closures. The Court has not yet made a decision. This case was the third lawsuit on its kind in the New Mexico Supreme Court. Businesses sued the governor over [...]
Mergers and acquisitions north of the border dropped to a nine-year low in 2020 as the pandemic stopped many Canadian companies’ strategies for growth. However, investors anticipate an uptick in deal-making in the fourth quarter will revive activity in the new year.With the administration of COVID-19 vaccines around Canada in [...]
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued new rules in December 2020 governing commercial drone activity. The move comes amid a growing interest in expanding the usage of drones to assist with delivery. Delivery items include food, medical supplies, books, and numerous other small items. The newly issued rules go [...]
M&A activity has seen a real surge in the second half of this year. The surge is remarkable after almost a dead stop in deals during the early stages of the coronavirus crisis. Mergers went into a holding patterns in the first half of this year. The pandemic made businesses [...]
On Tuesday, November 24, 2020, amid news that a formal transition to the Biden administration is commencing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) surpassed 30,000 points for the first time in history. Since that date, the DJIA has remained steadily above 30,000. This was a significant milestone for the index, [...]
Chinese companies struggled to go after acquisitions abroad in 2020; however, Latin America now appears to be a region where they were able to successful do deals. Overseas acquisitions by Chinese firms look to be in a fourth consecutive yearly decline, with a $31.1 billion tally that’s the lowest since [...]
Image credit: depositphotos National respiratory and home medical equipment provider Apria Healthcare recently agreed to a $40.5 million settlement. A whistleblower alerted authorities to fraudulent billing practices. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, made the announcement. The lawsuit claimed that Apria submitted claims to federal health programs, [...]
IPOs have been all the rage in 2020. At the end of December, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved a rule that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) proposed. The new rule allows companies to raise new capital through direct listings, an alternative to traditional IPOs. The NYSE plan [...]
Spot the Robot Dog. Image credit: Straight Hyundai has recently bought a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics from SoftBank. The Massachusetts-based robot maker Boston Dynamics announced last week that it was becoming part of the South Korean Hyundai family. The acquisition is subject to all the standard regulatory requirements and [...]
Companies that have already gone public may want to preserve the option to offer additional shares on the market at a later date. This may correspond with a new product launch, a future acquisition, or other major corporate event involving a need for additional financing. The shelf offering process allows [...]
