Markets

Horizontal Disruption and Private Equity Dominance Will Drive 2019 TMT M&A
Spending on technology acquisitions moved at a record pace in 2018. Technology giants including Microsoft, SAP and Salesforce announced billion-dollar deals after not completing any in 2017. Private equity firms spent more money on technology sector acquisitions than ever before.... Continue reading...

The Dominance of Visa
In this era, cash is no longer king. Even in a recession, there is no guarantee that cash will ever reign supreme again due to the efficiency and influence of alternative payment mechanisms. Visa is not only the world leader... Continue reading...

Brightview IPO & the Landscaping Market
The easiest way a kid could make money growing up was either to start a lemonade stand or mow their neighbor’s lawn. The latter, however, seems to be a dying breed. The landscaping industry, like many others, is seeing rapid... Continue reading...

Selecting an Investment Manager
The financial world’s focus on investment managers is intense. Everyone involved in finance, from hosts on CNBC, to everyday investors looking for funds and fund managers to learn from and copy, is extremely interested in successful firms and what makes... Continue reading...

Vertical Integration May Save Your Life
Healthcare in the U.S. is expensive.
In both the political and economic landscapes, healthcare has been heavily featured in the public dialogue, often accompanied with high-flown words, from overtones of governmental incapability to excessive cost inefficiencies, fraud and abuse. ... Continue reading...

Smarter Environmental, Social and Governance Investing
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, an investing strategy that considers factors such as carbon emissions, supply chain management and business ethics, has become increasingly widespread. According to the U.S. SIF Foundation, one fifth of the total assets under professional... Continue reading...

The Middle Man Lives: Wall Street Equity Underwriting after Spotify’s Direct Public Offering
In 2004, a technology startup looking to raise capital through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) decided to forgo the traditional route, instead using a novel method colloquially known as the “Dutch auction”. Here, investors bid for the stock to dictate... Continue reading...

The Failure of Venture Capital
The nature of venture capital (VC) investment is highly uncertain. When startup investors pick their investments, they may end up with a return anywhere from zero to 50 times what they put in. The National Venture Capital Association reports that... Continue reading...

Philosophy and Strategy in Investing
In the investing world, investors are always trying to find an edge to beat the market. One of the fundamental ways many investors try to find this edge is by deciding between a growth investing strategy or a value investing... Continue reading...

America First, Dollar Second and the Reactionary Federal Reserve
Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, previously wrote that “a nation’s exchange rate is the single most important price in its economy; it will influence the entire range of individual prices, imports and exports and even the... Continue reading...