Trent Dykes

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Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle-area office real estate market review for Q2 2014. As the report notes, so far in 2014, the only major surprise in the office market was Boeing expanding into over 600,000 s.f. of space in Bothell and the I-90 Corridor, single-handedly dropping the vacancy rates in those submarkets by 300-400 basis points (bps) each. The rest of the market trends are holding steady; leasing activity is improving across the region and the lack of large contiguous spaces in the…
Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q2 2014

Article prepared by and republished courtesy of our colleagues Steven Levitsky and Paolo Morante; originally published here: http://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/insights/publications/2014/05/merger-enforcement-actions-below-the-hsr-threshold/.

“Less is more” may be true in architecture, but in merger clearance law, “less” is still enough to trigger antitrust investigations and litigation and rescission of the whole transaction. By “less,” we mean less than the Hart-Scott-Rodino $75.9 million threshold.

The big case currently in the news underscoring this point is FTC v. St. Luke’s Health System. In January 2014, the Federal Trade Commission obtained a decision from the US District Court for Idaho ordering full divestiture of a non-reportable deal more than two years after the merger had been consummated.

But that result is actually old news. Contrary to popular opinion, the antitrust agencies have a long history of challenging deals well below the Hart-Scott-Rodino thresholds, even when the deals have already closed. And with the St. Luke’s case, they are warning again that no anti-competitive deal is immune from challenge, even if it is small.

What issues should you keep in mind to prevent a future disastrous challenge from the regulators? In this post, we briefly discuss the highlights of St. Luke’s and then close with 10 important points to keep in mind in upcoming M&A transactions.
Continue Reading You think your merger is too small for antitrust laws to apply…think again: Top 10 tips in non-reportable transactions

Just a reminder that the temporary 100% exclusion for Federal capital gains tax on the sale of “qualified small business stock” (“QSBS”), under Section 1202 of the IRS regulations, is set to expire at the end of calendar year 2013.

The QSBS tax exemption was originally enacted to incentivize investment in certain small businesses by providing (non-corporate) investors the opportunity to exclude all or a portion of their gains from Federal capital gains tax in certain circumstances.

In order to qualify as QSBS, stock must be purchased from a domestic C corporation that (i) is engaged in an active trade or business (as defined by the IRS regulations) and (ii) has gross assets which do not exceed $50 million (measured when the stock is purchased). Further, in order to qualify for the tax exemption, the investor must hold the qualified stock for at least five years from the date of purchase. In addition, the timing of an investor’s purchase of the qualified stock will impact the amount excluded from Federal capital gains tax that may later apply when the stock is ultimately sold, according to the following percentages:
Continue Reading Tax planning for year-end; expiration of the 100% tax exemption for gain on QSBS

CONTRIBUTED BY Trent Dykes and Nathan Luce

Earlier today, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took an important step in making securities-based crowdfunding a reality for many small companies with the release of its proposed rules governing crowdfunding. The proposed rules, called “Regulation Crowdfunding,” were drafted in connection with Title III of the JOBS Act. Whereas traditional crowdfunding involves a company offering things like advanced product or information releases, premium services or the ability to contribute to a given cause in exchange for an investment, Regulation Crowdfunding would allow those same companies to issue actual securities (i.e., debt or equity) in exchange for investments—a dramatic shift from what has become fairly common practice on websites such as Kickstarter or Microryza over the past few years.

The SEC’s Regulation Crowdfunding proposal would implement rules governing the offer and sale of securities under new Section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act of 1933 (Section 4(a)(6)). The proposal also provides a framework for the regulation of registered funding portals and brokers, whom issuers must use as intermediaries in their crowdfunding efforts pursuant to Section 4(a)(6). In addition, the proposal would exempt securities sold pursuant to Section 4(a)(6) from the registration requirements of Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Continue Reading Overview of Proposed SEC Crowdfunding Rules

The SEC is currently open and operational despite the recent federal government shutdown. So far the federal government shutdown has not slowed the proposed Twitter IPO, as their Form S-1 registration statement was posted to the SEC website on October 3.

The SEC has released its operational plan in the event of a future SEC shutdown, which can be found here. If there is a lapse in appropriations resulting in an SEC shutdown, the SEC will continue only certain functions, which are discussed both in the SEC release referenced…
Continue Reading SEC operating status in light of federal government shutdown

CONTRIBUTED BY
Trent Dykes, Megan Muir and Kiran Lingam (guest contributor from SeedInvest)

I. Introduction / Background

With the passage of the JOBS Act, the regulation governing most private securities offerings is undergoing a dramatic makeover. Congress tasked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with developing new rules allowing companies to generally solicit funds, subject to restrictions as determined by the SEC. In July 2013, the SEC issued final rules on this topic and also proposed additional rules that are not yet final. Managers of incubators, accelerators, angel groups and others involved in startup capital raising have expressed great concern about how the revised regulations will affect them, particularly with respect to their public-facing events.

Whether presenting at a demo day event, angel group meetings or business plan competitions constitutes “general solicitation” is a question that has caused great concern among many angel groups, incubators and other event organizers around the country. This post is designed to provide practical tips to event organizers on how to structure their demo day, pitch event or angel group meeting event in light of new federal rules and the current regulatory landscape.

Starting today, September 23, 2013, the final rules published by the SEC in July go into effect and companies can use general solicitation (or advertising) in connection their securities offerings under the new Rule 506(c) of Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933, adopted under Title II of the JOBS Act. However, the companies that choose to take advantage of general solicitation under the new rules will have to take steps they did not need to take in the past, including additional verification of accredited investor status. If the proposed rules go into effect, there are a further steps that would be imposed on companies choosing to generally solicit, including making advance filings of a Form D, filing with SEC the materials used in the general solicitation and including specific language (referred to as “legends”) in written solicitation materials.
Continue Reading Demo Days, Pitch Events and the New Reg D

As the new year approaches, taxes will again be front and center in shaping strategy for both actions before year-end and 2013 financial planning.  This year is no exception, and in fact the prevalence of tax as a driver will be magnified given several major tax changes that are set to take place at year-end absent action by Congress.  Merrill Lynch did a nice job of concisely summarizing the major tax changes here (“Tax law changes call for careful planning in 2012”).  Also see our earlier post on…
Continue Reading Summary of 2013 Tax Changes

Compliments of Jason Smith of Kidder Mathews, attached is a Seattle-area office real estate market review for Q3 2012. As the report notes, compared with the first half of the year the Seattle office market was very quiet in Q3, with the main difference between Q3 and Q2 that there were no new Amazon lease commencements. Not to say Amazon is the only driver in the local office market recovery, but it does point out just how big a role they have played, accounting for about half of the total net…

Continue Reading Seattle Office Real Estate Market Review for Q3 2012

CONTRIBUTED BY
Trent Dykes and Kerra Melvin

Selling your company can be an exciting and overwhelming process. In addition to the complexity of negotiating the terms of your merger or asset sale, you will inevitably be bombarded with tons of deal-related jargon. Enter one such term, Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 280G (280G) or the “golden parachute payment” rules, a federal tax provision that comes into play when there is a change in control of a corporation. 280G impacts both the corporate entity and its executives, shareholders, and other “highly compensated individuals” associated with the corporation and imposes harsh tax consequences if not properly addressed. This post will provide a high-level summary of 280G, discuss when 280G applies, ways to avoid 280G liability, and how to calculate individual tax liability (under IRC § 4999) if 280G does apply.Continue Reading Understanding Section 280G and Golden Parachute Payments

I recently had lunch with John Sechrest to find out more about his latest project, the Seattle Angel Conference he founded. The Conference website describes its approach to angel investing as “a structured investor-driven investment conference” in which “Qualified Investors create an LLC, engage in due diligence in startups, and ultimately pool funds [~$200,000 in aggregate] to invest in one of the presenting companies.”  You can find more details about the Conference at www.seattleangelconference.com/.

John is a relative newcomer to the Seattle startup scene, but has a long history…
Continue Reading Seattle Angel Conference: Local Startup Ecosystem