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Full-Text Articles in Securities Law
Five Decades Of Corporation Law - From Conglomeration To Equity Compensation, Richard A. Booth
Five Decades Of Corporation Law - From Conglomeration To Equity Compensation, Richard A. Booth
Working Paper Series
This brief essay recounts developments in corporation law over the last fifty years. It begins with the rise of finance capitalism and the conglomerate corporation which was followed by the emergence of hostile takeovers in the late 1970s and 1980s. One of the key events in this saga was the February 1, 1983 decision by the Delaware Supreme Court in Weinberger v. UOP, Inc. that effectively permitted the at-will elimination of minority stockholders through cashout mergers. Takeovers were also facilitated by two major financial developments: (1) the growth of institutional investors coupled with the growing taste of diversified investors for …
The Paulson Report Reconsidered: How To Fix Securities Litigation By Converting Class Actions Into Issuer Actions, Richard A. Booth
The Paulson Report Reconsidered: How To Fix Securities Litigation By Converting Class Actions Into Issuer Actions, Richard A. Booth
Working Paper Series
This short essay considers the findings and recommendations of the Paulson Report relating to securities fraud class actions under the 1934 Act and Rule 10b-5. While the report exposes numerous problems with securities litigation in the United States, it understates the problems inherent in stock-drop actions. As a result, the report fails to propose an effective fix. As the report recognizes, diversified investors gain nothing from stock-drop actions: Because the corporation pays, holders effectively reimburse buyers and sellers keep their gains. In other words, the system suffers from circularity akin to a game of musical chairs in that stock-drop actions …