The JOBS Act from way back in 2012, set forth the Crowdfunding exemption to the securities laws, and required that any Funding Portal that engaged in Crowdfunding registered with the SEC and became a member of FINRA. In late 2015, the SEC came out with the Regulation Crowdfunding Final Rules and forms to permit companies to offer and sell securities through Crowdfunding and to regulate the intermediaries which can sell the crowdfunded securities. The latest Funding Portal rules have been finalized by the SEC and FINRA. Read more
Tag: JOBS Act
SEC Adopts Final Rules Amending Regulation A
On March 25, 2015, the SEC adopted final rules amending Regulation A, referred to now as Regulation A+. These amendments were required by Congress via Title IV of the JOBS Act which was passed some time ago. (we are all still waiting for the Regulation Crowdfunding rules to be finalized).
The general rule is that when a company offers or sells a security, the security must either be registered or an exemption from registration must be relied upon. Regulation A has been on the books for a long long time and has been relied on very little.
Now the SEC has a tough job, its tasked with allowing companies to raise money via offerings of securities but on the other hand it needs to ensure that fraud does not run rampant. These two goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but the SEC has generally focused on the latter of the two at the expense of the first. Read more
Thoughts on the Twitter IPO
Last Thursday September 12, 2013, Twitter, from its official account, tweeted the following:
SEC allows general solicitation and advertising in Rule 506 offerings
Yesterday, July 10th, under the provisions of the JOBS Act the SEC passed its Final Rules which amended Rule 506 and Rule 144A to lift the ban on general solicitation and advertising in offering and selling securities in a Rule 506 sale as long as all purchasers of the securities are accredited investors. Read more
JOBS Act Broker-Dealer Registration Exemption
The JOBS Act contained many provisions which were aimed at making the capital raising process easier, simpler and quicker from a host of angles. Many things promised in the JOBS Act will not come to fruition until the SEC promulgates the regulations on the specific topic. Some of these are equity crowdfunding, and the ability for issuers to use general solicitation in Rule 506 offerings.
One of the things contained in the JOBS Act which went into effect immediately, was an exemption for broker-dealer registration for persons or entities acting as brokers in certain 506 offerings. The SEC just confirmed this in a recent FAQ available here. I’ll give a quick overview below. Read more
SEC proposed regulations would allow general solicitation and advertising in a Rule 506 financing
Last week the SEC issued its proposed regulations to allow for public advertising and general solicitation in Rule 506 offerings.
As way of background, at this point when companies are trying to raise funds in a private offering, they typically rely on Rule 506 of Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933, which allows for an unlimited amount of funds to be raised and minimal disclosure requirements if the securities are sold to accredited investors. Offering undertaken pursuant to Rule 506 also preempt state securities laws, except those relating to fraud and notice filing (and notice filing fee) requirements. While all of the above makes Rule 506 the “go to” securities law exemption, the main reason it was originally allowed is because it has historically only been able to be used in private offerings, where the issuer (or the broker acting for the issuer) had a pre-existing relationship with the investor.
The JOBS Act, which I’ve discussed, contained a provision which would require the SEC to promulgate regulations to allow general solicitation and advertising in Rule 506 offerings, provided that all purchasers in such offering are accredited investors.
Crowdfunding – Prepare your Company to Crowdfund
As I’ve discussed earlier, the SEC is now preparing regulations to allow for Crowdfunding pursuant to the recently passed JOBS Act. These should be done by 2013 (emphasis on should be done by then – we’ll see when they actually come out). As you may have heard, it will allow for true equity sales over the World Wide Web. Companies will soon be able to sell shares of their corporation (or LLC) through online portals to regular persons that are not accredited investors (i.e. not millionaires or otherwise sophisticated).
There are a couple of things to discuss, the first is whether this is something your company actually would want to do. The second item is, if it is something you want to do, then what can you do to prepare your company to do a Crowdfunding raise in 2013 (or whenever the SEC finishes the regulations).
The basics of Startup Funding
So you’ve got a great business idea, and a team ready to bring it to market (or at least a plan to begin getting it there), but the one thing you don’t have, like a lot of new companies is the capital to begin. This post will walk through the traditional process for a startup to seek and receive funding. Read more
JOBS Act Breakdown – What the New Crowdfunding Law Actually Means for Startups
This is a follow up to my last post regarding the concept of crowdfunding in general and the progress of the JOBS Act through Congress (full name – Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act). Since then, the Senate revised and passed the JOBS Act in a 73 to 26 vote. The House then, voting on the amendments made by the Senate, passed it by a vote of 380 to 41. This is something that both parties agree on, and were eager to work together to implement. Josh Earnest, the White House Deputy Press Secretary, stated that President Obama will sign the JOBS Act into law this Thursday, with a bipartisan public announcement. The President and Eric Cantor, one of the champions of the JOBS Act, will appear together for the signing of the bill into law.
This post will detail the provisions of the JOBS Act and how they will affect companies going forward. The JOBS Act can be found here if you’d like to take a read. After it is signed into law, the SEC has 270 days to promulgate regulations. Expect the SEC to claim that they need more time, as the JOBS Act is a monumental change, and there are various consumer (i.e. the new investor) protections required, especially to prevent fraud which, unfortunately, could run rampant if left unchecked. Hopefully Congress can put enough pressure on the SEC to get the regulations complete in the actual 270 day time period, and the regulations will actually have some teeth with respect to fraud without stifling startup’s ability to raise money.
Crowdfunding – A Potential New Wave of Startup Financing
As you may have heard, Congress is now debating certain bills which would allow startups to raise funds in a new less restrictive manner, i.e. through “crowdfunding”. The lead bill is the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (“JOBS”) Act passed by the House on March 8, 2012. There is fierce opposition from various groups to the House version of the JOBS Act – including most states, the SEC, the New York Times, Bloomberg, accounting groups, AARP (?) and even the the old “Sherriff of Wall Street” himself, Eliot Spitzer. In this post we’ll look at what crowdfunding is, what Congress is proposing and the effects it may have.