Ending with the conclusion of the Georgia Senate runoff elections on January 5th and resulting in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, a Democratic election trifecta has created optimism within the cannabis industry for federal reform, with investors eager to capitalize on this momentum. (John Rebchook, Marijuana Business Daily). In wake of the Democrats taking control of the Senate, the market is investing in the improved probability for the federal legalization of cannabis, the end goal of a long journey that formally began in 2012. Id.
Read MoreOne of the newest industries to gain a foothold in the United States and abroad is the cannabis industry—which has shifted from a cartel-run black market to a legal industry in 15 states (and Washington, D.C.), and decriminalized in 16 more states. (DISA, Map of Marijuana Legality by State). The market for legal marijuana is growing so fast that one study estimates it could be worth over $70 billion by 2027. (Grand View Research, Legal Marijuana Market Size Worth $73.6 Billion By 2027). Yet despite its potential for growth, the marijuana industry still faces a lack of access to capital and banking that might prove essential to its ability to thrive.
Read MoreAs the economy progresses into an age marked by the rise of streaming services and the collapse of brick-and-mortar empires like Blockbuster Video, consumers have swiftly adapted and embraced new technology. GameStop, a once thriving video game retailer with storefronts at many local malls, is suffering a similar fate. In December 2020, the video game chain announced that it would close up to 1,000 stores by the end of its fiscal year in March 2021. (Lauren Gray, Yahoo!). Even so, in January 2021, many investors woke to news headlines declaring a GameStop stock (“GME”) buying craze. Within six days, GME’s price soared from $43.03 on January 21st to $347.51 on January 27th, a 708% increase. (Google Finance). What happened?
Read MoreThe long-time debate between stakeholderism and shareholderism is becoming far more in favor of stakeholderism due to the increasing importance of Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) initiatives. Shareholderism is the traditional school of thought that the responsibility of a corporation is to the shareholders only. Stakeholderism has been challenging this view with the idea that the responsibility of a corporation is to benefit all of its stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders. The Chairman and CEO of Blackrock, one of the largest asset management companies in the world, recently wrote a letter to CEO’s emphasizing the importance of ESG to investors and the public. (Larry Fink, Blackrock).
Read MoreOver the last few years high-profile age discrimination lawsuits have rocked the tech industry – perhaps not surprising as the average tech-worker is 5 years younger than the average non-tech worker. (State of Startups). Big names like IBM, Google, and HP have been on the defensive end of many of these claims, ultimately paying out millions in settlements (Gurchieck, SHRM; Riggio, DiversityInc). Most notably, IBM was the subject of a rare multi-year Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) investigation that found more than 85 percent of redundancy and rolling layoffs impacted older employees, age 40 or older, between 2013-2018 (Dorrian, Bloomberg Law; Callaham, Forbes). The investigation confirmed a pattern of systemic age discrimination, where IBM pre-selected older employees for layoffs and had managers alter their performance evaluations to justify their firing, giving adversely impacted former employees a strong basis to file age discrimination claims (Dorrian, Bloomberg Law).
Read MoreThe road to completing LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE’s (“Louis Vuitton”) acquisition of Tiffany & Co. (“Tiffany”) was a bumpy one. Louis Vuitton and Tiffany announced they agreed on a revised merger agreement (the “Merger Agreement”), and closed the transaction on January 7, 2021 (LVMH). Over the past year, the two companies have had a rocky relationship. Louis Vuitton, the buyer, originally walked away from the initial agreement, and Tiffany sued to keep the deal moving forward. (Angelina Rascouet & Kim Bhasin, Bloomberg). The revised deal is now worth almost $16 billion. Id.
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