Facebook’s disappointing public company debut has drawn a great deal of media scrutiny and criticism. But the finger pointing has not been contained just to the front pages of the newspapers. Disappointed investors have also now resorted to the courts, and further lawsuits seem likely to follow.
First, on May 22, 2012, an investor
On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the enactment of The Sarbanes Oxley Act, Cornerstone Research has released a study of the filing trends and settlements of securities class action lawsuits involving accounting allegations. The May 2012 report entitled “Accounting Class Action Filings and Settlements: 2011 Review and Analysis” can be found here. A
In order to try to boost the number of companies going public, the recently enacted JOBS act provides for certain procedural and reporting advantages for “Emerging Growth Companies,” which are defined in the Act as companies within five years of their IPO and with revenues less than $1 billion. A number of companies planning IPOs
In the wake of JP Morgan Chase’s startling news last week of its $2 billion trading loss, and of the equaling startling statements of Jamie DImon, the bank’s CEO, that the losing trades were, among other things, “flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed, and poorly monitored,” there has been speculation whether these disclosures would lead to
Among the features of the recently enacted JOBS Act that has attracted the most attention are the legislation’s provisions for “crowdfunding.” Under these provisions, a company is permitted to raise up to $1 million during any 12-month period through an SEC-registered crowdfunding portal. While these provisions have attracted a great deal of discussion and even controversy
Much has been written recently (including on this blog) about the growing prevalence of M&A related litigation. These lawsuits, typically launched by the target company shareholders, are filed shortly after a merger announcement and usually object to some aspect of the proposed merger or of the merger-related disclosure. But the merger objection lawsuit is not
A great deal of the analysis of securities class action lawsuit settlements revolves around measures of aggregate, average and median settlement amounts. These data, while useful, are relatively unhelpful in trying to anticipate the outcome of any particular case, particularly at the outset. To try to develop a way to predict likely case outcome at
On April 11, 2012, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC released its study of cross-border private securities litigation, entitled “Study on the Cross-Border Scope of the Private Right of Action Under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934” (here). This Commission study considers possible alternative approaches to the question
On April 11, 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers released its 2011 Securities Litigation Study, entitled “The Ever-Changing Landscape of Litigation Comes Full Circle” (here). According to the study, “we’ll remember 2011 as the year that plaintiffs’ attorneys’ renewed their focus on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and foreign issues (FIs), specifically those based in China.” PwC’s April
The automatic stay in bankruptcy may be lifted to permit MF Global’s D&O and E&O insurers advance the defense expenses of individual defendants in the underlying litigation arising out of the company collapse, notwithstanding the objections of the failed company’s commodities customers, according to an April 10, 2011 ruling from Southern District of New York