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Preview Thursday: Benefit Corporation Law and Governance: Pursuing Profit with Purpose

Lead Change Blog

I spent almost 30 years as a lawyer in private practice, advising business leaders on Delaware corporate law issues – addressing matters like preferred stock financings, IPOs, mergers, hostile takeovers, proxy contests, corporate governance and fiduciary issues. My own story is an interesting backdrop.

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Startup Accelerators Have Become More Popular in Emerging Markets — and They’re Working

Harvard Business Review

For decades, we have heard that emerging markets are poised for huge growth that will yield even greater prosperity. Much like their famed Silicon Valley counterparts, emerging market accelerators aim to boost startups’ potential for raising growth capital.

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How the Market Ruined Twitter

Harvard Business Review

billion in its 2013 IPO) that investors have plowed into it. Could Twitter have chosen not to follow the standard VC-to-IPO path that has brought it to this pass? The company has piles of money — $3.6 And the company’s latest (Oct. 27) earnings report doesn’t really show that kind of acceleration.

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Why Unicorns Are Struggling

Harvard Business Review

When financial services company Square priced its IPO at $9 a share last November, well under the $15+ price that private investors paid the year before, it was a cold shower of reality for the 6-year-old company. Until the IPO, Square had been one of more than 130 unicorns: privately owned tech companies valued at $1 billion or more.

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Why Financial Statements Don’t Work for Digital Companies

Harvard Business Review

On February 13, 2018, the New York Times reported that Uber is planning an IPO. Twitter reported a loss of $79 million before its IPO, yet it commanded a valuation of $24 billion on its IPO date in 2013. Uber’s value is estimated between $48 and $70 billion, despite reporting losses over the last two years.

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Venture Capitalists Get Paid Well to Lose Money

Harvard Business Review

2013 had all the signs of being a comeback year for venture capital. Booming public equities and a recovered IPO market generated record portfolio company exits and distributions from VC funds. LPs would pay VCs well, through carry, when they do what they say they will: generate great returns in excess of the public markets.

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?Numbers Show Apple Shareholders Have Already Gotten Plenty

Harvard Business Review

In August 2013, Icahn bought more than $1 billion worth of Apple shares. As I explain in my recent Harvard Business Review article, “Profits Without Prosperity,” open-market repurchases that represent the vast majority of buybacks in the United States reward value extraction and undermine value creation.