The Treasury Secretary’s stance on internal-controls compliance seems to represent a subtle shift away from a strong preference for rolling back Sarbox.
David M. Katz, CFO.com
June 20, 2007
Pushed by a Congressman to stretch the deadline for small-company compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s internal-controls provision, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson held firm on Wednesday to the current filing [...]

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A new federal advisory committee, headed by MFS chairman Robert Pozen, has one year to make recommendations to the SEC.
Sarah Johnson, CFO.com
June 27, 2007
The Securities and Exchange Commission has established a committee to figure out how to take complexity out of financial reporting. Headed by Robert Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management, the group will [...]

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Coming This Summer: 404 for All
Small business hopes for another 404 delay were kept alive in Congress today, but a more likely scenario is that smaller firms will have to start complying this summer.
Alan Rappeport, CFO.com
June 05, 2007
The jury is still out on whether recent rule changes will make it easier for small companies to [...]

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Gersten Savage LLP
In a move designed “to provide broader and more timely public notice of important Commission actions,” the Securities and Exchange Commission announced April 25 that it plans to replace a number of paper effectiveness orders with electronic notifications.
In particular, the SEC said in a release, on May 22, the staffs of the Divisions [...]

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The SEC posted their 114 page proposal on Rule 144 changes to their site Friday June 22, 2007.
The SEC is proposing making Rule 144 available for the resale without registration of restricted securities issued by a reporting shell company, at least 90 days after a reverse merger is completed and the “Form 10 information” or [...]

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DealFlow Media’s Reverse Merger Conference has just convened. This year the conference had close to 350 attendees. Here is an overview of what was discussed at the event:

2007 - First quarter results - 53 reverse mergers with $3 billion market cap - 100% higher than the prior year quarter!
A new study at the University of [...]

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As I outlined in my previous Blog there are five contributing factors that changed the IPO marketplace for small emerging growth companies.
1. The crash of IPO markets in late 2000.
The IPO markets were fueled by one thing in the late 90’s – The Internet.  From 1997 through the end of 1999 just about anyone who [...]

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Since the introduction of Sarbanes Oxley (“SOX”) the opportunities for emerging growth companies to go public via the traditional IPO route has come to a screeching halt.
If you have any doubts look at the charts covering IPO’s from 1999 through the first six months of 2007 as provided by www.ipohome.com.

The reduced number of traditional IPO’s [...]

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By Ralph Amato
I was at the JCK convention in Vegas last week for four days. In case you are wondering what “is” the JCK convention let me give you a quick overview. Basically, JCK is the largest annual convention in the US for jewelry manufacturers. There are over 4,000 jewelry manufacturers in [...]

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By Ralph Amato
When the planets align there are certain industries that are ripe for a roll up strategy.  Right now that industry is in the jewelry business.
The jewelry industry is steeped in tradition and hasn’t changed since the coming of Christ.  That is the problem.  The retail side of the industry is consolidating and the [...]

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