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The U.S.
government has missed its small-business contracting goal every
year in the past decade, a sign of the continuing barriers facing
companies competing with larger rivals for federal work. The
government has a target of awarding 23 percent of eligible prime,
or direct, contracts to small businesses.
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(Source: Bloomberg,
2012-03-29)
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A better
economic outlook and rising stock market are heating up the market
for initial public stock offerings this spring, just weeks before
Facebook's highly anticipated IPO. Still, with ongoing worries
about high gas prices and unemployment dampening the economy, it's
too early to tell whether an IPO recovery is here to stay.
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(Source: Bloomberg Businessweek, 2012-03-29)
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Much of the
talk around the Jobs Act has centered on the technology sector, but
the biggest impact could land on far more prosaic ventures,
investors and analysts say. The Jobs Act, a bill to make it easier
for young companies to raise money, raced through Congress over the
past several weeks.
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(Source: CNBC,
2012-03-29)
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A new House
proposal to cut taxes on small business might give a boost to
manufacturing. The bill would allow companies with fewer than 500
employees to take a 20 percent tax deduction.
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(Source: CFO.com,
2012-03-22)
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The research
and development tax credit and 'transfer pricing' are the two top
worries being reported to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service by
companies on a new form known as "Schedule UTP"
that took effect just last year, the IRS said. The R&D tax
credit has been a leading area of dispute between companies and the
IRS for years.
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(Source: Reuters,
2012-03-21)
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The private
equity buyout market is back! A combination of the hot stock market
and interest rates near all-time lows has created the perfect
conditions for many public companies to put "for sale"
signs up in hopes of enticing private equity attention.
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(Source: CNNMoney.com,
2012-03-21)
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A total of
$27.6 billion was plowed into 695 investments in China last year,
up 166 percent and 92 percent, respectively, over 2010, according
to Zero2IPO Group, a venture capital and private equity research
agency in Beijing. "The year 2011 witnessed a sharp growth in
PE investments," wrote Fiona Fu, a senior analyst at Zero2IPO,
in a January 5 report.
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(Source: Bloomberg Businessweek, 2012-03-30)
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U.S. private
equity firms are playing a waiting game in Europe. These firms, the
Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management and Oaktree
Capital Management among them, have been raising billions of
dollars during Europe's sovereign debt crisis to buy loan portfolios,
corporate bonds and other holdings from troubled financial
institutions on the Continent.
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(Source: Commercial
Appeal, 2012-04-01)
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Forget
competition -- new research says that sharing patents with
competitors will be the real factor that drives future innovation.
That's the finding of Gilad Sorek, an assistant visiting professor of
economics at the University at Buffalo, who found that free
licensing, or giving up patent protection, stimulates demand for
products and in the process make them more valuable.
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(Source: Fox Business,
2012-03-23)
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The Clinton
Foundation program is one of dozens of programs -- some more
successful than others -- that pair entrepreneurs with mentors,
from those overseen by the Small Business Administration to more
specialized ones like the Venture Mentoring Service run by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And with Congress and the
presidential candidates talking about ways to help small-business
owners who have fallen on hard times, one author thought it useful
to look closely at a program whose success did not depend on money
but time.
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(Source: The New York
Times, 2012-03-23)
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Over the
past 15 years, the percentage of entrepreneurs in the 20- to
34-year-old age group actually has dropped, according to a study
released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Those in the
55-64 age group, meanwhile, picked up the slack.
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(Source: Indianapolis
Business Journal, 2012-03-28)
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There have been some rather interesting road signs posted
in 2012 for closely-held business owners at the intersection of
business succession planning and estate planning. As family businesses
look to the next generation for leadership, the federal government is
making navigation in this area quite challenging, through a combination
of federal estate tax provisions that are set to expire and roll back
to prior levels absent new legislation. Add to that the turbulence and
unpredictability brought on by the upcoming Presidential election, 2012
looks to be as interesting a year as 2010 in terms of family business
estate planning when the estate tax disappeared altogether, only to
come roaring back into view in 2011.
Read full article online.
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Congress has just passed, and President Obama has
announced he will sign, legislation entitled the Jumpstart Our Business
Startups Act (JOBS Act).
This legislation includes a number of separate but related initiatives
designed to assist small businesses to raise capital, including the
removal of some perceived obstacles to becoming publicly-held through
an initial public offering (IPO). (Please view Ice Miller's previous
article on access to capital.) Members of Congress and the
Obama Administration, by stressing the benefits to small businesses,
were able to overcome objections from many who remain concerned that
this deregulation effort goes too far and exposes investors to
unreasonable risk. Even the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
raised serious concerns with some aspects of the JOBS Act. We shall
see.
Read full article online.
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Ice Miller has been recognized as the 7th most active law
firm in the nation based on the number of private equity and venture
capital funds worked on for general partners and limited partners that
had a final close in 2011, with a total of 140 fund transactions closed
in 2011. The ranking appears in the March 2012 issue of the Private
Equity Analyst, a publication of Dow Jones.
Read full article online.
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On March 22, 2012, ExactTarget completed its initial
public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, and began trading under
the symbol ET. The company was able to raise more than $161 million –
the shares traded at more than $25 during the first day of trading, up
from the initial offering price of $19 per share with a final close
that day of $25.11.
Source: NYSE, Ice Miller
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Ice Miller has been one of the most active law firms in
the private equity industry over the last decade, representing both
entrepreneurs building great companies and the private equity firms and
individuals that invest in them. We have extensive experience
with all types of funds (formations and operations); mezzanine and
senior secured financing; leveraged buyouts, roll-ups, build-ups, and
consolidations; divestitures and exits; and complex litigation on
behalf of investors and privately financed companies. In
addition, over the past 10 years, Ice Miller has represented hundreds
of emerging growth businesses in various industries on such matters as
entity formation, capitalization, capital raising, alternative
financing, intellectual property rights and protection, growth and exit
strategies, corporate governance, tax matters, and many other legal
issues that are critical to the growth and success of an emerging
company.
Read the complete profile of the Private Equity and Venture Services Group.
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