2020 IPO, Venture Capital and M&A Reports

• 6.29.2020

WilmerHale’s annual IPO, Venture Capital and M&A Reports offer insights into market conditions and provide comprehensive statistics and analysis that are hard to find elsewhere.

The 2020 IPO Report offers a detailed IPO market review and outlook, plus useful market metrics and articles on topics of interest for pre-IPO companies, including:

• Minimizing the risks of “friends and family” programs in an IPO
• The pros and cons of employee stock purchase plans
• Navigating “test-the-waters” communications
• The impact of the landmark Salzberg decision on IPO-related securities lawsuits 
• How crowdfunding, Regulation A and Regulation D registration exemptions have expanded the pre-IPO financing toolkit
• The ingredients of an effective insider trading policy
• Key features of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans
• The significance of board oversight in the wake of recent cases involving Caremark claims
• The latest SEC guidance on audit committee best practices

The 2020 Venture Capital Report offers an in-depth US venture capital market review and outlook, including industry and regional breakdowns, as well as insights on the following topics:

• Important tax issues to consider in secondary sales of private company stock
• Questions startups and IPO companies need to resolve when designing a stock incentive plan
• The increasing impact of privacy law on startups
• Deal term trends in VC-backed company M&A transactions and convertible note, SAFE and venture capital financings

The 2020 M&A Report provides a global M&A market review and outlook, as well as insights on the following topics:

• Takeover defenses for public companies
• Tips on balancing pre-closing goals with the risk of gun-jumping antitrust violations in a merger
• Disclosure considerations in private company mergers
• A comparison of deal terms in public and private company acquisitions
• The impact of buy-side representation and warranty insurance on deal terms in private company sales
• Deal term trends in VC-backed company acquisitions

Each report also includes a center spread showcasing prominent recent transactions in each area and company counsel rankings from independent sources showing WilmerHale’s preeminence as counsel in IPOs, VC financings and sales of VC-backed companies.