TheCorporateCounsel.net

December 22, 2009

SEC Proposes Changes to Help WKSIs During Offerings

Even though the federal government was closed due to snow, the SEC issued a proposing release yesterday to amend Rule 163(c) so that it would allow a WKSI to authorize an underwriter to act as its agent to communicate about an offering before filing a registration statement (the press release came out a day later).

As noted in the release, the purpose of the proposed amendment is to remove some impediments to capital-raising since not as many WKSIs have automatic shelfs (or shelfs that don’t include all the types of securities the issuers may decide to offer) – this proposal would allow WKSIs to gauge investor interest without revealing confidential information about the issuer’s capital-raising plans.

PCAOB Reproposes Risk Assessment Standards

Last week, the PCAOB voted to repropose seven auditing standards relating to risk assessment and the auditor’s response to risk, including risk of fraud. Learn more from FEI’s “Financial Reporting Blog.”

More on “The Mentor Blog”

We continue to post new items daily on our new blog – “The Mentor Blog” – for TheCorporateCounsel.net members. Members can sign up to get that blog pushed out to them via email whenever there is a new entry by simply inputting their email address on the left side of that blog. Here are some of the latest entries:

– Study: Larger Companies Less Likely to Have Independent Board Chairs
– Some Venture Capital Firms Lower Fees
– Launched: Google Scholar
– More On CalPERS and Placement Agents
– IROs: Use Single Investor RSS Feed
– FINRA’s “Social Networking Task Force”
– Promoting Issuer Stock on Product Labels
– Should Brokers Really Be Treated Like Advisers?
– Alan Dye’s Latest Thoughts on NY’s Power of Attorney Law
– Shareholders: Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?
– Life Balance Issues for Executive Spouses

– Broc Romanek