3 ms·

I wonder how much it cost them to buy this bill.

• tomp 15y ago
  It's not such a bad bill, really. I personally would hate it if I created a company, got some investors, and then those investors would sell their stock, making the number of shareholders go above 500, and suddenly forcing me to incur all the cost (money and time) of releasing audited financial statements.
  • sorbus 15y ago
    Has that ever happened?
  • beagle3 15y ago
    Well, as long as the company is private, you can stop that from happening. I have shares in a few private companies, some of which I've invested in, and some of which I earned through work. Every single one of these had a "right of first refusal" clause in the investment / option / stock grant agreement; If I have a buyer, I must give existing shareholders the option to do the deal at the same conditions -- and they can either take it whole or leave it. Doesn't make much of a difference for me (once a buyer is available, I'll get the same conditions), but it does let the company -- if it so wishes -- keep the investor pool small, if they pay to play. Also, having been an entrepreneur and having raised money myself -- 500 shareholders is something you don't accidentally get to before your private company is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And at that point, you won't care about the cost of releasing audited financial statements - the reason everyone avoids that at that point is that you can't keep your cards secret anymore.