DLA Piper is pleased to announce the launch of Prize Promotions Around the World, an updated edition of our popular handbook.

Prize Promotions Around the World is an online tool designed to assist companies across the globe in managing the early development stages of a prize promotion, such as a sweepstakes or a skill-based contest, and to bring to their attention potentially problematic issues.

Key features include:

  • Additional jurisdictions, now with over 35 countries
  • Expansion of topics, including rules on judging and sanctions
  • Interactive map, highlighting the range of

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Continue Reading Prize Promotions Around the World: New Handbook

Our private company clients often ask what kind of revenue or EBITDA multiple ranges they can expect upon a sale or when determining their enterprise value in connection with a financing. This is always a tricky question as value is driven by ever-changing supply and demand and then-current market conditions. Moreover, with yet-to-be-profitable startups, substantial value often lies with their IP, team and/or future prospects.  Accordingly, for a startup, the answer to this question is subjective at best. With that said, one of the better resources I have found for…
Continue Reading Current trends on deal multiples (Q1 2017)

From our colleagues Carla Small, Jim Halpert and Anne Kierig

Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced final cybersecurity rules for New York’s financial services sector.

The Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies (the Final Rule), promulgated by the New York Department of Financial Services, is the most specific cybersecurity regulation in the country to apply to companies that are not critical infrastructure operators.

They apply to all New York-licensed financial services companies including banking, insurance and money transmission business lines, with very limited exceptions.

Read more here.

 
Continue Reading NYDFS Announces Final Cybersecurity Rules for Financial Services Sector

As a Valentine’s Day gift to the community, Silicon Valley Bank issued its eighth annual Startup Outlook Report, resulting from a survey of nearly 950 technology and healthcare executives in startups, most based in the US, with additional input from businesses with primary operations in the UK and China. SVB’s survey asked entrepreneurs for their views on access to capital, hiring, general business conditions, public policy issues and other factors relevant to their businesses.  Nearly all of the survey respondents were privately held companies, with the majority in the…
Continue Reading SVB’s Annual Startup Outlook Report

For some time now, corporate venture capital (CVC) has been a significant part of the funding ecosystem. According to Pitchbook, in 2016 alone over $20 billion was invested in 745 US venture deals in which CVC participated.  CVC is not a new phenomenon. In a post in April 2016, Pitchbook, noted that since the beginning of 2010, $125.57 billion has been invested in rounds involving CVCs. Over the past few years, much attention has been paid to the large investment amounts coming from CVCs and the growing…
Continue Reading Corporate Venture Capital Compensation Snapshot

Below are three charts compliments of J.Thelander Consulting and PitchBook that illustrate the dilutive impact over time of venture funding on founder ownership levels. These charts are the result of J.Thelander Consulting’s venture-backed private company ownership survey – and divided by industry (biotechnology, medical device and technology). Read the full article here.

While these charts are directionally helpful, each company will of course have its own set of facts. In my experience, the main drivers of founder dilution are often:

  • the size of the founder team;
  • how long the

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Continue Reading The dilutive impact of VC funding on founder ownership

From our colleagues Paolo Morante, Steven E. Levitsky, Laura Kam and Adam Steene:

The Federal Trade Commission has announced its annual revision to the jurisdictional thresholds under the Act. The new thresholds will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, which is expected in the next few days.

Under the new thresholds, no transaction will be reportable unless, as a result of it, the acquiring person will hold voting securities, assets, or noncorporate interests of the acquired person valued above $80.8 million (increased…
Continue Reading Hart-Scott Rodino Thresholds Revised

In this recent post to our fellow DLA blog – Technology’s Legal Edge – our colleague Giulio Coraggio identifies some of the legal issues that are being sorted out with respect to the Internet of Things, including the following:

  • Is “industrial” data personal data?
  • How do you protect data and IoT technologies?
  • Who is the owner of the data?
  • Is data kept secure?
  • What liability if things go wrong?

He also notes some EU-specific questions.  His full post can be found here.
Continue Reading The Internet of Things and its Legal Dilemmas

Article prepared by and republished courtesy of our colleagues Evan Migdail and Steven Phillips; originally published here: https://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/insights/publications/2016/11/the-trump-tax-reform-plan/. 

As a result of the elections, the chances for the enactment of comprehensive tax reform are perhaps greater than at any time over the past decade. A great deal of work has already been done on tax reform in the Congress. What has been lacking is the political dynamic needed to make reform a reality.

President-elect Donald Trump and Congress may also consider a scenario whereby part of the tax reform could be used to pay for an infrastructure program to create greater domestic economic growth.

What follows are brief summaries of President-elect Trump’s tax proposals and the House Republican Tax Blueprint that is expected to be a possible starting point for the consideration of reform early in 2017. 
Continue Reading The Trump Tax Reform Plan – Key Points

Yesterday the SEC adopted rules intended to facilitate intrastate and regional securities offerings.  The SEC made general updates and modernized old Rule 147, the safe harbor exemption for intrastate securities offerings under Section 3(a)(11) of the Securities Act. The SEC also adopted a new exemption in Rule 147A, which differs from Rule 147 primarily in that it expressly permits general solicitation and does not require the issuer to be formed in the same state as its principal place of business and investors.  This should allow Rule 147A to work more effectively with state-level crowdfunding exemptions.  (We have previously blogged about the challenges of crowdfunding under Rule 147.)

The SEC also revised Rule 504 to increase the aggregate offering amount limitation from $1m to $5m and to add “bad actor” disqualifications (aligning it with recent updates to Rule 506). In addition, the SEC repealed the little used and now largely redundant to Rule 505.

These rules have various effective dates tied to publication of the rules in the Federal Register, which will likely occur next week:

  • Revised Rule 147 – 150 days after publication in the Federal Register
  • New Rule 147A – 150 days after publication in the Federal Register
  • Revised Rule 504 – 60 days after publication in the Federal Register
  • Repeal of Rule 505 – 180 days after publication in the Federal Register

Continue Reading New SEC exemption rules for intrastate and regional offerings