"Understanding the Private Company Trading Markets"

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

2:00 - 2:45 pm, eastern [archive and transcript to follow]

With the highly-publicized growth of stock markets that allow for trading in pre-IPO companies, many are wondering how the federal securities laws can be complied with when trading on SecondMarket, Sharepost, etc. One of the most interest things going on (besides the liquidity aspect of all this and the related impact on equity compensation) is the emergence of new businesses building on top of the secondary trading markets. For example, there are equity research firms who are commencing research on private companies - and data companies who are mining through Delaware filings to reverse engineer private companies' cap structures. This is a fundamental shift in the world in which private companies operate, including their expectations of confidentiality. There are also endless technical issues beyond the obvious ones, including how these new markets affect the various definitions of "public trading market" used under tax and securities laws (280G, 409A, Reg S) and how this can impact private company valuations. Join these experts:

  • Annemarie Tierney , General Counsel, SecondMarket
  • Dave Lynn, Editor, TheCorporateCounsel.net and Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP
  • Kim Kovacs, CEO, OptionEase
  • Sharon Hendricks, Partner, Gunderson Dettmer LLP

Among the topics of this program are:

  • What is the current environment for secondary sales in private companies like Facebook?
  • What types of policies should these pre-IPO companies adopt to help ensure trades are made in a way that comply with the securities laws?
  • What types of records should companies – or their advisors – keep to keep track of trading?
  • What is the potential impact of these secondary sales on an IPO or merger?

Cost: As 2011 members of TheCorporateCounsel.net are able to attend this critical webcast at no charge. If not yet a member, try a no-risk trial now. The webcast cost for non-members is $595. You can renew or sign up for a no-risk trial online - or by fax or mail via this order form. If you need assistance, send us an email at info@thecorporatecounsel.net - or call us at 925.685.5111.

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What you can do if you can't access the live program: If you have a scheduling conflict or have problems accessing webcasts generally (due to firewalls, etc.), an audio archive of the webcast will be posted immediately after the program - and a text transcript of the program will be posted on TheCorporateCounsel.net about a week after the live webcast. We don't apply for CLE for any of our audio webcasts.