DealLawyers.com Blog

July 18, 2006

Impact of ’33 Act Reform on M&A

In this podcast, Jim Showen of Hogan & Hartson analyzes the impact of the SEC’s ’33 Act reform on M&A transactions, including:

– It’s my understanding that the SEC’s securities offering reform rules that went into effect last December specifically do not apply to M&A transactions. Yet I have heard that there may be a couple of important considerations stemming from those rules that M&A practitioners ought to keep in mind. What are those?

– Since the WKSI test involves primarily size and compliance by the issuer – and acquisitions would presumably always make the company bigger – how could an acquisition cause a company to lose its WKSI status?

– How does the securities offering reform rules work in tandem with Regulation MA during the pendency of a registered merger?