Corporate Securities Law Blog

On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, enacting it into law. The JOBS Act is intended to make it easier for smaller and earlier stage companies to raise capital and also to revitalize the U.S. market for initial public offerings, which has been in decline since the beginning of the last decade.

The provisions of the JOBS Act represent a watershed change to the laws and regulations governing capital raising for private companies. Some of the provisions – such as the “IPO on-ramp” provisions and the increase in the number of holders triggering mandatory registration and public reporting under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, are effective immediately. Others, including the new crowdfunding exemption, the removal of the ban on general solicitation for offerings under Rule 506 to accredited investors and Rule 144A to QIBs, and the new exemption modeled on Regulation A, will require SEC rulemaking before they come into force.

We have previously blogged about the original House version of the Act and the changes the Senate adopted, which changes were enacted into law. This article discusses the full Act as enacted.

On March 26, 2012, the House of Representatives passed the version of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act that was approved by the Senate on March 22, 2012. The House vote was 380-41. President Obama is expected to sign the bill this week. We discussed the JOBS Act and the Senate’s modifications to the crowdfunding provisions of the JOBS Act here and here.

On March 22, 2012, the Senate passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act by a vote of 73-26. The House of Representatives passed the JOBS Act on March 8, 2012 by a vote of 390-23. The Senate bypassed its typical committee process to rush the bill to a floor vote. Legislators in both parties and the President have adopted the JOBS Act as an election-year demonstration of their commitment to small businesses and entrepreneurialism, and they have paid little heed to strongly-worded opposition from SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, state regulators and organizations ranging from the Council for Institutional Investors to the AARP.

Building on months of momentum in Congress, on March 8, 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act by a bi-partisan vote of 390-23. A similar bill, S. 1933, has been introduced in the Senate and may be voted on this month. The JOBS Act is intended to address the sharp decline in U.S. public offerings during the last decade and to facilitate capital raising by smaller companies. The provisions of the JOBS Act will, if enacted, represent a watershed change to the laws and regulations governing capital raising for private companies and would create a limited, temporary and scaled regulatory compliance pathway, referred to as an “IPO on-ramp,” for companies going public and newly public companies. The IPO on-ramp is designed to reduce the costs and uncertainties of accessing public capital.

Just before 2011 year-end, the SEC adopted final rules first proposed in January 2011 to exclude the value of an investor's home when determining if an investor meets the net worth test for an accredited investor. A person's status as an accredited investor affects eligibility, sophistication and information requirements for certain unregistered securities offerings. The final rules differ from the proposed rules by addressing home equity indebtedness incurred in the 60 days prior to an offering, and by grandfathering securities purchase rights held prior to enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ("Dodd-Frank").

In The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co., N.A., v. Liberty Media Corp., No. 284, 2011 WL 4376552 (Del. Sept. 21, 2011), the Delaware Supreme Court held that Liberty Media Corp's proposed split-off was not sufficiently connected to previous transactions to warrant aggregation of both the proposed and previous transactions, and thus the proposed split-off did not constitute a sale of "substantially all" of its assets. Bond indentures issued by corporate borrowers typically contain a covenant that the issuer will not sell "all or substantially all" of its assets without the substitution of the purchaser as successor obligor or without otherwise causing a default and acceleration. This landmark ruling should allow corporate issuers accessing the debt capital markets greater flexibility to manage assets and dealmakers’ increased clarity in interpreting a standard indenture provision.
 

On July 26, 2011, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new rules to phase-out and eventually eliminate credit ratings from the transaction eligibility requirements of Forms S-3 and F-3, the short forms that eligible issuers can use to register securities under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”). These forms enable eligible issuers to rapidly access the public capital markets in the United States. The SEC also adopted corresponding amendments to modify other SEC rules that reference credit ratings. The new rules were adopted in light of Section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Act (“Dodd-Frank”), requiring the SEC to amend its regulations to “remove any reference to or requirement of reliance on credit ratings and to substitute in such regulations such standard of credit-worthiness.” Following is background and a guide to the new short-form eligibility criteria for transactions.
 

Public companies and companies registering to go public should be aware of recent fee rate adjustments made by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The following fee rates will be affected by the adjustment:
 

• the Section 6(b) fee rate applicable to the registration of securities, 
• the Section 13(e) fee rate applicable to the repurchase of securities and 
• the Section 14(g) fee rate applicable to proxy solicitations and statements in corporate control transactions.
   

Public companies and companies registering to go public should be aware of an upcoming fee rate adjustment to filing fees with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
 

On April 6, 2011, Mary L. Schapiro, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") sent a letter to Darrell E. Issa, Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, responding to a March 22, 2011 letter from Rep. Issa concerning capital formation issues. In her letter, Chairman Schapiro indicated that the SEC would consider revising the rules that govern the way in which small businesses are able to tap into equity markets in the new era of crowdfunding, social media and other new communications media that did not exist when the current SEC rules were established. Rep. Issa's letter discussed a number of perceived problems encountered in recent securities offerings, including the January 2011 decision by Goldman Sachs and Facebook to offer shares in a $1.5 billion private offering only outside the U.S. In her letter, Chairman Schapiro indicated that the review is intended to give the SEC "a fresh look at our rules to develop ideas for the Commission about ways to reduce the regulatory burdens on small business capital formation in a manner consistent with investor protection."

The last three quarters have seen a rebirth of initial public offerings by special purpose acquisition corporations (“SPAC”) brandishing new features and creative solutions to the problems that contributed to the demise of the SPAC market in 2008. National securities exchanges have responded with new rules to facilitate new listings for SPACs.
 

As previously discussed in our August 17, 2010 blog posting “Registered Public Offerings Of Debt Securities And The Use Of Credit Ratings Information In SEC Filings After Dodd-Frank,” the practice of marketing registered public offerings of debt securities with credit ratings information and related disclosure of issuer credit ratings in SEC filings is undergoing changes mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”). On February 9, 2011, SEC commissioners voted unanimously to propose new eligibility requirements for short-form registration of public offerings of debt securities and related communications that will no longer be tied to an issuer’s credit rating from a nationally recognized statistical ratings organization, or NRSRO. If adopted as proposed, eligibility for offerings of non-convertible debt securities using short-form registration will be satisfied if the issuer has issued at least $1 billion of non-convertible securities in transactions registered under the Securities Act, other than equity securities, for cash during the past three years (as measured from a date within 60 days of the filing of the registration statement) and satisfies the other relevant requirements of Form S-3 or Form F-3.
 

In July 2010, NASDAQ OMX began permitting companies applying for listing in US markets to submit Listing Applications via its online Listing Center, moving toward its stated goal of migrating all paper-based forms to its electronic platform. Currently the Listing Center supports the electronic submission of Listing Applications and Listing of Additional Shares Notifications. The Listing Center also allows the upload of any supporting documentation, including completed Listing Agreements and Corporate Governance Certification Forms.  On January 24, 2011, NASDAQ announced that the Listing Center now supports the electronic submission of Rule Interpretation Requests, as well.
 

On January 25, 2011, the SEC proposed new amendments to conform the definition of “accredited investor” under Rule 215 of the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 501 of Regulation D to requirements imposed by Congress under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”). Various exemptions for private or other limited offerings of securities under the Securities Act of 1933 and state “blue sky” laws depend on whether participants are “accredited investors.” Non-accredited investors who participate in private offerings under Rule 505 or Rule 506 of Regulation D must receive financial and other information that is not required to be given to accredited investors.