Introduction Special-Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have been widely discussed over the past year. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a SPAC is created specifically to pool funds in order to finance a merger or acquisition opportunity within a set time frame. A SPAC has 24 months after the initial public offering (IPO)… Read More »
Growth in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices is an undeniable fact of modern business. 90% of S&P 500 firms published a corporate sustainability report in 2020, up from merely 20% in 2011. As more and more firms adopt CSR practices, a key question emerges: how do such activities impact investor perceptions of firms? Proponents of… Read More »
Expressive Trading and Markets The phenomenon of social-media-driven trading (SMD trading) entered the public consciousness earlier this year when GameStop’s stock price was driven up two orders of magnitude by a “hivemind” of individual investors coordinating their actions via social media. Some believe that GameStop’s price is artificially high and is destined to fall. Yet the stock prices of… Read More »
“Lessons from COVID-19: Liquidity Risk Management is Central to Open-Ended Funds.” —BlackRock (2020) “Liquidity risk management programs (LRMPs) will be a focus area for the Division.” —SEC (2021) Mutual fund liquidity management has become increasingly important since the financial crisis of 2007–2009, during which regulators and practitioners raised concerns about whether mutual fund portfolios had… Read More »
Seeking “strategic alternatives” is industry jargon for considering a potential sale or merger. During this process, the company gauges interest from potential acquirers. From 1990 to 2018, there were more than 1,200 announcements made by public companies revealing that they were reviewing strategic alternatives (examples here and here). Before deciding whether to disclose this information voluntarily, via a… Read More »
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