Nasdaq fees are ready for takeoffIn late August, Nasdaq announced changes to their annual listing fees.  Generally, the fees will increase effective January 1, 2015, but Nasdaq is also adopting an all-inclusive annual fee and eliminating its quarterly fees.  The new annual fee will now include fees related to listing additional shares, record-keeping changes, and substitution listing events.  The all-inclusive fee is optional for issuers until January 1, 2018 at which point it becomes mandatory.

Issuers have a choice to make.  Option #1 – An issuer can do nothing and continue to pay an annual fee as well as pay the quarterly fees to list additional shares.  Under this method, an issuer will experience increased 2015 fees ranging from 0% to 40% depending on how many shares an issuer has outstanding.  Generally, the largest increases are for issuers with less than 10 million shares outstanding (14% increase) and for issuers with more than 100 million shares outstanding (40% if there are between 100 and 125 million shares outstanding and 25% if there are more than 150 million shares outstanding).  Think of this option as the same as flying on an airplane.  You get a seat (usually), but if you want anything else you need to pay.

Option #2 – Elect to
Continue Reading Nasdaq annual listing fees are going up, up (but not away)

Nominate The Securities Edge for Blawg 100Dear Readers,

The ABA Journal is soliciting nominations for law blogs to include in their 7th Annual Blawg 100.   Essentially, the American Bar Association puts together a list each year to honor the legal blogs that have the most impact.  If you like what you read on our blog, we are asking you to consider

Gunster and the Southeastern Chapter of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals are jointly hosting a complimentary event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on June 6. 

The two-hour program will feature the following speakers:

 SEC update: what’s on the mind of the staff … and the new SEC chair?

  • Brian V. Breheny, Partner,

We wanted to thank all of our followers and readers in helping make The Securities Edge so successful.  This week marks the second anniversary of our blog (including our run on the Gunster Blog)!  Each month we see increasing traffic, which tells us that we must be doing something right, but as always, please give

Pursuant to Section 417 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC’s Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation is undertaking two current studies involving short selling. The first study focuses on the state of short selling on national securities exchanges and in the over-the-counter markets. 

The SEC is seeking comments to complete its second study involving