"The United States once had IPO markets that made our stock markets the envy of markets throughout the world," according to David Weild IV, Chairman and CEO of Weild & Co.
He continues, "With the move to electronic markets beginning in 1998, the small IPO collapsed. The US should be averaging 950 IPOs a year and we muster only 150 IPOs on average since 2000--a number that doesn't even replace what is lost in an average year. This cost the US economy 10 million jobs."
Weild, the former vice chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and an expert on capital formation who worked on many aspects of the 2012 JOBS Act. His concern about where the markets have gone is matched by his enthusiasm for where they could go.
"Of course, the JOBS Act was passed and that helps to drive down costs for corporate issuers. In the meantime, we were the catalysts for the SEC Tick Size Pilot which launches this spring and the current discussions in Congress for 'Venture Exchanges'--a totally new type of stock exchange that would be optimized for the needs of small (sub $2 billion market value) capitalization stocks," Weild adds. "In addition, Weild & Co. is working to crash the cost of helping corporations market to much larger numbers of the right investors over the internet. To date, we've been able to as much as double institutional investor interest on IPOs and we think this is the beginning of something revolutionary."
Weild's enthusiasm for the markets is matched by his desire to see social enterprises flourish.
"If we can get the United States (and the rest of the world) to structure markets that are friendlier to entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers, that increased access to capital could contribute over 10 million net new jobs to the US economy over a decade while solving some of the great challenges of our time in areas including healthcare and global warming. We believe we are the single most important social impact company on the planet, because what we do helps to enable vast numbers of social impact companies."
On Thursday, October 8, 2015 at noon Eastern, Weild will join me here for a live discussion about the markets and the work that Weild & Co. is doing to give social entrepreneurs and others greater access to capital. Tune in here then to watch the interview live. Post questions in the comments below or tweet questions before the interview to @devindthorpe.
You can download an audio podcast here or subscribe via iTunes.
More about Weild & Co.:
Weild & Co. develops and applies scalable technology platforms and services to increase demand for offerings and aftermarket support. We do this for private placements, IPOs and follow-on offerings. Our clients include public companies and investment banks who engage us to expand distribution. As the world's leading experts in how market structure impacts company fortunes in capital markets, Weild & Co. leads the way in driving improvements in capital formation for corporations that will lead to enhanced economic and job growth.
Weild's bio:
David Weild is Chairman and CEO of Weild & Co., the investment bank that develops and applies technology to help companies and other investment banks increase institutional investor demand on private placements, IPOs, follow-on offerings and in the aftermarket. He is a noted expert in capital markets who has testified in Congress numerous times in front of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). He has spoken at the G-20, Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), the Budapest Economic Forum and addressed the 34 member nations and the European Commission for the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He is known as the ‘Father’ of the JOBS Act for studies that he co-authored with Edward Kim that were the first to identify and characterize the long-term structural decline in the IPO and listed companies markets. These studies inspired most of the bills that were later wrapped into the JOBS Act.
Subsequent work by Weild catalyzed the SEC tick size pilot (scheduled to launch in spring 2016) and current legislative interest in "Venture Exchanges."
Mr. Weild was formerly Vice Chairman of The NASDAQ Stock Market in charge of the Corporate Client Division with line responsibility for NASDAQ’s 4,000 listed companies. Mr. Weild also headed equity capital markets and corporate finance at a top ten underwriter of IPOs and follow-on equity offerings. During the course of his career he worked on over 1,000 of these transactions. Mr. Weild holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business and a BA from Wesleyan University. He has studied on exchange at The Sorbonne, Ecole des Haute Etudes Commerciales and The Stockholm School of Economics. Mr. Weild is a former Treasurer of The Bond Club of New York. He currently holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 63, 79, and 99 licenses. He is Chairman of the Board of Tuesday's Children, the noted 9/11 organization that now also serves victims of mass gun violence (Resiliency Center of Newtown) and families of the fallen.
