By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate GMI Ratings doesn’t rate IPOs. The information contained in their S1s, the document filed with the SEC describing the public offering, is either incomplete for our purposes or subject to change, or both. That’s not to say that we don’t write about IPOs. We’ve written about [...]
Tag Archives | IPO
Facebook: We Told You It Wasn’t Going to Turn Out Well
May 31, 2012 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, Flash Reports
Small Print
May 25, 2012 in Daily Viewpoint, Small Print
By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate Small Victories… Company Analyst Kyle Whisler, who found this surprising announcement in Air Lease’s 2012 proxy statement, asked: “Might the work we’re doing have contributed to what is perceived as a ‘governance best practice’?” It sure does Kyle. Mos Def. Air Lease Corporation recently recommended shareholders to [...]
Facebook, I want your money, I don’t want your interference
February 2, 2012 in Corporate Governance
By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate Probably not since Google’s IPO, with its similarly disappointing showing in corporate governance, has there been so much interest generated in an internet IPO as that of Facebook. But, although it is hoped to raise an enormous amount of investment, Facebook’s attitude towards governance is far [...]
Social Media IPOs: Dual-class Double Standard?
July 15, 2011 in Corporate Governance
By Michelle Lamb, Research Associate, and Cheri Gaudet, Marketing Manager As our own Nell Minow reported last month, social media companies Groupon and LinkedIn went public with dual-class share models; a structure known in the governance world to be problematic. This Wednesday the FT highlighted this same structure at several other social media companies – [...]
The Saga of Crazy Eddie (and His Crooked Family): Planet Money
July 7, 2011 in Daily Viewpoint
By Nell Minow The brilliant Planet Money show has an unmissable episode about one of the biggest financial frauds of the pre-Enron era, Crazy Eddie. Their slogan was, "Our prices are INSANE." It should have been, "Our investors are INSANE." "Crazy" Eddie Antar's former CFO (and his cousin), who turned state's evidence, shows up to [...]
What Shareholders Miss in the LinkedIn and Groupon IPOs
June 13, 2011 in Proxy Voting
There have been a lot of complaints about the bubble-era pricing of the LinkedIn IPO and the forthcoming one from Groupon, but not enough complaints about the real Achilles' heel in the offering — the insiders are maintaining voting control by issuing stock to the public with lower-voting shares. My new column on Bnet gives [...]