2022 IPO, Venture Capital and M&A Reports

• 2.28.2022

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

The 2022 IPO Report offers a detailed IPO market review and outlook, including regional breakdowns, plus useful market metrics and articles on topics of interest for pre-IPO companies, including the following:

• The expanding list of board composition rules and considerations that companies must navigate when going public, emanating from securities regulators, stock exchanges, proxy advisory firms, institutional investors, state legislatures and others, in support of efforts to increase board diversity.
• The COVID-19 pandemic’s transformation of the IPO process.
• Crafting effective risk factors in the IPO prospectus.
• Tips for conducting effective Form S-1 drafting sessions.
• How due diligence in the IPO process can enhance disclosure and help protect against liability.
• Why the lead-up to an IPO is a good time to focus on estate planning.
• Things to consider before including “flash results” in your IPO prospectus.
• Lockup basics and recent trends.
• What it means to be treated as a company “officer” under various definitions.
• The principal disclosures directors, officers and stockholders must make in an IPO.

The 2022 Venture Capital Report offers an in-depth US venture capital market analysis and outlook, including industry and regional breakdowns, and insights on the following topics:

• Steps startups can take from the outset to pave the way to an IPO or company sale.
• Simple ways to shore up your company’s IP without breaking the bank.
• The ways in which an increasingly remote workforce is re-mapping the state tax compliance landscape.
• Immigration basics for startups thinking of hiring skilled workers from overseas.
• Deal term trends in VC-backed company M&A transactions and convertible note, SAFE and venture capital financings.

The 2022 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.
• The rise of SPAC mergers and direct listings as new paths on the multi-track road to liquidity and public ownership.
• The SPAC phenomenon and recent headwinds that have slowed its wild ride.
• Anti-corruption issues companies should address in the M&A context.
• A comparison of public and private company M&A deal terms.
• Deal term trends in VC-backed company acquisitions.

The relevant reports also showcase prominent recent capital markets, venture capital and M&A transactions.