Tomorrow is the big day. On September 23, the new SEC rules ending the ban on general solicitation in certain private securities offerings, mandated by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, become official. As long as you limit ultimate purchasers of securities to "accredited...
If you enjoy experiences in which you feel your head can explode, let someone knowledgeable and objective talk to you about all the different ways a company can go public. IPO. Self-underwriting. Self-filing through Form 10. Self-filing through Form S-1. Reverse merger with trading shell,...
This past Wednesday, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which decides on what accounting rules should apply to public and private companies, announced that they are looking at easing the reporting requirements for "development stage" companies. They are working on a draft that should be...
It just came over the wires that social media company Twitter has filed a registration statement with the SEC to go public in an IPO. They told the world about it, of course, in a tweet. What's interesting is that the company, with over 200...
Believe it or not, it was five years ago this week that Lehman Brothers, then one of the largest Wall Street houses, fell apart. In the week or two after the largest bankruptcy filing ever ($600 billion in assets) on September 15, 2008, tremendous fear...
If you work with folks who look to advise companies considering going public, it is of course important to ensure that they have good experience in doing so. Therefore, I believe two simple questions have to be asked of anyone you might bring on board...
In talking with folks who want to advise you about the going public process, it is key to determine the following: What costs should we expect to get public and then once we are public? Can you help us determine if we can afford to...
We now commence diving into details of questions to ask potential advisors looking to take a company public. One of the most important threshold questions is: Can we benefit long-term from being a public company, and if so why is it preferable to remaining private? Is...
Clients considering going public in the small and microcap world often encounter consultants, public shell brokers and investment banks eager to advise them on the process. Sometimes clients meet them as a result of being cold-called, in other cases solid references make the connection. Clients ask...
A champion for Wall Street, for women and for reverse mergers, Muriel "Mickie" Siebert passed the other day at age 80. Mickie was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She also took her brokerage firm public through a...