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Kevin Kennedy Quoted in Wall Street Journal on IPOs Amid Partial Government Shutdown

01.24.19

Corporate Partner Kevin Kennedy was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article titled “Biotech Firm Files To Go Public With Workaround Amid IPO Freeze.” The article discusses how a biotechnology company used a rare workaround to file to go public, despite the partial U.S. government shutdown, which has left the SEC largely closed and unable to approve IPOs. The rare maneuver involves changing language in an IPO filing to make it automatically effective after 20 days. Although this workaround has long been available to companies, Kevin says the move is “highly, highly unusual.”

Kevin added “It’s hard to envision this working for too many outside of the life sciences. For a lot of them, going public is not optional. They have to find this funding or shut down.”

To read the full article, please click here (subscription required).