Intangibles Impact on IPO Success (research findings)

A recent study of US IPOs from 1986 through early 2000, conducted by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, found that “new economy” firms that promoted the use of non-financial measures did worse when evaluated by those same measures. This compounds their well-documented failure to provide meaningful financial returns and confirms the importance of identifying, measuring, and disclosing appropriate intangible value drivers.

Furthermore, the study found that … [ Read more ]

Global Securities Markets Present Tough Challenges for Investors and Regulators

Securities markets worldwide have been on a roller-coaster ride after the bursting of the dot-com bubble and Enron’s meltdown. Moreover, technology and globalization are breaking down old market structures and creating new virtual ones. How will investors and regulators deal with these challenges? Wharton’s Financial Institutions Center and the Brookings Institution organized a conference last week in Washington D.C. on “The Future of Securities Markets” … [ Read more ]

A Fresh Look at Merger Risk

Armed with his database of U.S. mergers, Harvard Business School professor Mark Mitchell has been exploring models of risk arbitrage that challenge earlier theories. What he’s found: Merger arbitrage is riskier than it looks.

Inside Three Real Interviews: The Hot Seat

Three MBAs. Three interviews. The razor-sharp recruiter who scored them. And what you can learn from their mistakes.

Class Struggle

Companies are being pressured to eliminate classes of stock with supervoting rights.

Are Analysts Playing Us for Suckers?

Wall Street analysts relentlessly cheered the dot-com mania that pushed technology stocks to stunning gains in 1999. But even after those stocks went into a tailspin in 2000, few analysts urged investors to sell. Such behavior has drawn the attention of both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Congress, which held hearings on the subject in mid-June.

What Happened to the Bull Market?

By the time NASDAQ reached its peak in the recent bull market, many financial commentators had begun to accept the idea that stock market valuations were no longer driven solely by the traditional economic factors: earnings growth, inflation, and interest rates. Instead, they suggested, new factors—such as structural changes in the economy, new rules of economics, and the value of intangible assets and brands—justified the … [ Read more ]

Poison Pill Popping

With stock prices down, poorly performing companies are more vulnerable to hostile takeovers. So it comes as little surprise that an increasing number are popping poison pills, a familiar takeover defense mechanism. What is surprising are the terms of some of the latest deals.

From the Trenches: Equities Iniquity

Article takes a look at the underlying problems with today’s investment banks’ research analysts.

The Danger of Stock Option Grants

Stock options are a great idea run amok, as evidenced by the massive option packages awarded to some high-profile CEOs. Options are given tax treatment so companies have an incentive to depend on them for more of their employee compensation. But options are not free to current investors, as they dilute present and current earnings per share. Bill Mann offers a shorthand he learned from … [ Read more ]

Getting the Compensation Structure Right in the Mutual Fund Industry

Authors take a look at how money managers get compensated and whether these compensation schemes provide managers with the incentive to act in the investors’ best interests. Their research concludes that certain money managers, due to the generally accepted method of compensation in the mutual fund industry, are likely to increase their portfolio’s risk level in an effort to improve their chances of receiving … [ Read more ]

The Art of the Tie-In

From late 1998 through the summer of 2000, Wall Street was an out-of-control beast, and IPOs were its sustenance. The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly investigating a host of questionable issues, including whether investment banks unfairly allotted pre-IPO shares in return for a variety of kickbacks. It is the practice of tie-ins, more than anything else, that has attracted most of the … [ Read more ]

A Fresh Look At Mutual Funds’ Performance Data

For mutual fund analysts, new insights into evaluating a fund’s performance don’t come along every day. Lately, though, financial experts at Wharton and other schools have collaborated on research that challenges some long-held notions about which funds are best for investors. Included in that research is a paper by Lubos Pastor of the University of Chicago and Wharton’s Robert Stambaugh on how to improve standard … [ Read more ]

Investors all choked up over collars

One of the most popular ways to gauge a company’s health is to mind what corporate insiders are doing. If they’re jumping ship or dumping shares, there’s good reason to worry. But it’s not as easy to track insider bearishness as you might think, thanks to a hedging tactic called the zero-cost collar, a tool that’s saved insiders a boatload of cash while individual investors … [ Read more ]

Mergers & Acquisitions Primer

Most large mergers and acquisitions are reviewed by the United States government prior to consummation. The two agencies reviewing these transactions are the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). In order to provide a degree of predictability in those reviews, the agencies have promulgated a set of rules with regard to how the parties report their transactions to the government and … [ Read more ]