After numerous false starts, the time has finally come for private companies to begin reporting leases on their balance sheets and comply with the lease-accounting standards first introduced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in late 2015. While most public companies adopted Accounting Standards Update (ASU) Topic 842 in 2019, privately held business were granted several delays and now have until Dec. 31, 2022, or the first annual report filing of the year, to apply the new lease...

Growing Investment in Robotics Companies – Investors continue funding the latest robotics innovations in various industries, including the medical, manufacturing, logistics, hospitality, and automotive sectors. With plenty of cash in the market, venture capital (VC), private equity (PE), and strategic investors aim to capitalize on and steer development of disruptive robotics technologies. Intellectual Property (IP) Is Critical for Robotics Innovations – Patents and trade secrets continue to be essential tools for protecting robotics innovations and maintaining a competitive edge. Strategic companies...

Takeaways The new minimum HSR “Size of Transaction” threshold is increasing from $92 million to $101 million. New thresholds apply to transactions closing on or after February 23, 2022. This $9 million increase is the largest ever annual adjustment to the minimum HSR “Size of Transaction” threshold. Failure to file may result in a fine of up to $46,517 per day of non-compliance. The HSR Act casts a wide net, catching mergers and acquisitions, minority stock positions (including compensation...

Key Notes: The HSR size-of-transaction threshold will increase from $92 million to $101 million. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Friday that the jurisdictional thresholds for filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act will increase in 2022, including an increase of nearly 10% in the size-of-transaction threshold from $92 million to $101 million. As required by statute, the FTC adjusts the HSR thresholds annually based on the change in gross national product. The HSR thresholds decreased in 2021—a rare...

2022 is here, and hopefully, it will be remembered as the year we put an end to Covid-19. Several industries are poised to complete the economic rebound or even boom. These are sectors that we at Cea Legal will be following closely: Blockchain, blockchain, blockchain! 2021 was an amazing year for the blockchain industry, as the business world better understood that the magnitude of this technology is much bigger than the pioneer, Bitcoin. Since the iconic sale of Beeple digital art...

On Thursday the Russian Central Bank proposed a ban on the use and mining of cryptocurrencies in a bid to stave off increasing financial instability and safeguard monetary policy dominance. This comes just days after the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK announced it will be cracking down on the use of promotional ads and marketing strategies by cryptocurrency traders, fearing that consumers are being misled into undertaking risky investments they do not understand. This follows a move in December 2021...

In December 2021, the White House issued the United States Strategy on Countering Corruption (the Strategy). The Strategy was issued pursuant to a June 3, 2021 National Security Study Memorandum on Establishing the Fight Against Corruption as a Core United States National Security Interest (the NSSM). Although the issue of corruption has been linked to national security in the past, the NSSM's pronouncement that the fight against corruption represents a "core" national security interest, and the investing of responsibility for...