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Commercial Awareness Update - July 2019!
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<blockquote data-quote="Bugsy Malone" data-source="post: 12029" data-attributes="member: 201"><p><strong>Welcome to this week’s commercial write up everyone. The topics covered are:</strong></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"><span style="color: #0059b3">Virgin Galactic going public (by Sara Moon)</span></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"><span style="color: rgb(0, 89, 179)">US opposition to Libra (by Moni)</span></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"><span style="color: rgb(0, 89, 179)">France’s digital tax (by Jaysen)</span></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"><span style="color: rgb(0, 89, 179)">British Airways fined a record £183 million under new GDPR (by Flora)</span></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"><span style="color: #0059b3">Ford and Volkswagen’s Billion Pound Alliance (by Sairah)</span></li> </ol><p></p><p><strong>1. <u>Virgin Galactic going public (by [USER=525]@Sara Moon[/USER])</u></strong></p><p></p><p><strong>The Story:</strong></p><p></p><p>Virgin Galactic announced last week that it will go public through the New York Stock Exchange. Virgin Galactic is a space tourism company within the famous Virgin Group and was founded in 2004 by Sir Richard Branson. Its aim is to provide commercial space flights to the public, possibly as early as the second half of this year. This initial public offering (IPO) is part of a merger agreement between Virgin Galactic and an investment company Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH). IPO is a term used to describe a private company offering its shares to the public for the first time, allowing any investors to buy its shares. If Virgin Galactic gets listed, it will be the first publicly-traded commercial spaceflight company.</p><p></p><p><strong>Impact on Businesses and Law Firms:</strong></p><p></p><p>Normal people like us buying tickets for a space tour was nothing more than a fiction until a few years ago. Now, it seems like the space industry is growing rapidly to provide services to the public in general. A new space race seems to have begun among private space travel companies like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin. This means that we are likely to see an increase in business expansion strategies like mergers and acquisitions and IPOs from these companies. There are many other businesses in the space industry, ranging from spacecraft hardware manufacturing to launching services, and we should be expecting active business activities from these companies as space technology develops.</p><p></p><p>The space sector is a growing area that could bring new sources of revenue to law firms. Some law firms like Hogan Lovells and Bird & Bird already have departments solely dedicated to the space activities sector. We can expect more law firms developing a space practice in the coming years.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>2. <u>US Opposition to Libra (by [USER=1643]@Moni[/USER])</u></strong></p><p></p><p><strong>The Story </strong></p><p></p><p>Over the past several days, Facebook has come up against significant opposition from Washington to its proposed cryptocurrency Libra. President Trump unleashed a <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1149472282584072192" target="_blank">twitter storm</a> on “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies” which he said are “highly volatile” and can "facilitate unlawful behaviour." In particular, he criticized Libra, saying that it will have little standing and that Facebook would become subject to US and international banking regulations. It was the first time President Trump had articulated his views on cryptocurrencies and came amidst significant political opposition to Libra in the US.</p><p></p><p>Before President Trump tweeted, the chair of the US Fed, Jerome Powell, said that Libra “raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, and financial stability” which he felt needed to be addressed before Libra would be allowed to launch.</p><p></p><p>However, the opposition to Libra did not end there as on Monday; Congressional House Democrats released draft legislation called the “Keep Big Tech out of Finance Act” which would fine large tech companies that primarily offer an online platform service $1million a day for operating digital assets. The draft legislation was released ahead of David Marcus, Facebook blockchain lead’s testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee.</p><p></p><p><strong>Impact on Businesses and Law Firms</strong></p><p></p><p>Before the announcement of Libra in June, Facebook and the other members of the Libra association conducted an "initial consultative phase" with regulators and central banks and affirmed their commitment to a "collaborative process with regulators, central banks and lawmakers." Despite Facebook's openness to collaboration, US lawmakers and regulators appear to have united in opposition against Libra. Facebook did not respond directly to Trump’s tweets but did say that the Libra association would not interact with consumers or operate as a bank and that Libra is meant to be a complement to the existing financial system.</p><p></p><p>Despite these statements, there are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/opinion/facebook-currency-libra.html" target="_blank">significant legal barriers</a> to the implementation of Libra, including the fact that Libra would be viewed as a commodity and subject to capital gains taxes under current US tax laws. David's Marcus' testimony will be telling as to whether or not Libra is viable in the existing regulatory environment, and international regulators and other cryptocurrency providers will be watching closely as this could be a turning point in the US regulatory conversation around cryptocurrencies.</p><p></p><p>When asked about the possibility of Facebook opening it up to other jurisdictions if they were to be banned by US regulators, Facebook executives noted that while they would want to operate in markets where they are allowed to, they would also like to operate in as many markets as possible. However, they did express concern that a ban by US regulators would probably also concern other regulatory regimes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bugsy Malone, post: 12029, member: 201"] [B]Welcome to this week’s commercial write up everyone. The topics covered are:[/B] [LIST=1] [*][COLOR=#0059b3]Virgin Galactic going public (by Sara Moon)[/COLOR] [*][COLOR=rgb(0, 89, 179)]US opposition to Libra (by Moni)[/COLOR] [*][COLOR=rgb(0, 89, 179)]France’s digital tax (by Jaysen)[/COLOR] [*][COLOR=rgb(0, 89, 179)]British Airways fined a record £183 million under new GDPR (by Flora)[/COLOR] [*][COLOR=#0059b3]Ford and Volkswagen’s Billion Pound Alliance (by Sairah)[/COLOR] [/LIST] [B]1. [U]Virgin Galactic going public (by [USER=525]@Sara Moon[/USER])[/U][/B] [B]The Story:[/B] Virgin Galactic announced last week that it will go public through the New York Stock Exchange. Virgin Galactic is a space tourism company within the famous Virgin Group and was founded in 2004 by Sir Richard Branson. Its aim is to provide commercial space flights to the public, possibly as early as the second half of this year. This initial public offering (IPO) is part of a merger agreement between Virgin Galactic and an investment company Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH). IPO is a term used to describe a private company offering its shares to the public for the first time, allowing any investors to buy its shares. If Virgin Galactic gets listed, it will be the first publicly-traded commercial spaceflight company. [B]Impact on Businesses and Law Firms:[/B] Normal people like us buying tickets for a space tour was nothing more than a fiction until a few years ago. Now, it seems like the space industry is growing rapidly to provide services to the public in general. A new space race seems to have begun among private space travel companies like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Blue Origin. This means that we are likely to see an increase in business expansion strategies like mergers and acquisitions and IPOs from these companies. There are many other businesses in the space industry, ranging from spacecraft hardware manufacturing to launching services, and we should be expecting active business activities from these companies as space technology develops. The space sector is a growing area that could bring new sources of revenue to law firms. Some law firms like Hogan Lovells and Bird & Bird already have departments solely dedicated to the space activities sector. We can expect more law firms developing a space practice in the coming years. [B]2. [U]US Opposition to Libra (by [USER=1643]@Moni[/USER])[/U][/B] [B]The Story [/B] Over the past several days, Facebook has come up against significant opposition from Washington to its proposed cryptocurrency Libra. President Trump unleashed a [URL='https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1149472282584072192']twitter storm[/URL] on “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies” which he said are “highly volatile” and can "facilitate unlawful behaviour." In particular, he criticized Libra, saying that it will have little standing and that Facebook would become subject to US and international banking regulations. It was the first time President Trump had articulated his views on cryptocurrencies and came amidst significant political opposition to Libra in the US. Before President Trump tweeted, the chair of the US Fed, Jerome Powell, said that Libra “raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, and financial stability” which he felt needed to be addressed before Libra would be allowed to launch. However, the opposition to Libra did not end there as on Monday; Congressional House Democrats released draft legislation called the “Keep Big Tech out of Finance Act” which would fine large tech companies that primarily offer an online platform service $1million a day for operating digital assets. The draft legislation was released ahead of David Marcus, Facebook blockchain lead’s testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee. [B]Impact on Businesses and Law Firms[/B] Before the announcement of Libra in June, Facebook and the other members of the Libra association conducted an "initial consultative phase" with regulators and central banks and affirmed their commitment to a "collaborative process with regulators, central banks and lawmakers." Despite Facebook's openness to collaboration, US lawmakers and regulators appear to have united in opposition against Libra. Facebook did not respond directly to Trump’s tweets but did say that the Libra association would not interact with consumers or operate as a bank and that Libra is meant to be a complement to the existing financial system. Despite these statements, there are [URL='https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/opinion/facebook-currency-libra.html']significant legal barriers[/URL] to the implementation of Libra, including the fact that Libra would be viewed as a commodity and subject to capital gains taxes under current US tax laws. David's Marcus' testimony will be telling as to whether or not Libra is viable in the existing regulatory environment, and international regulators and other cryptocurrency providers will be watching closely as this could be a turning point in the US regulatory conversation around cryptocurrencies. When asked about the possibility of Facebook opening it up to other jurisdictions if they were to be banned by US regulators, Facebook executives noted that while they would want to operate in markets where they are allowed to, they would also like to operate in as many markets as possible. However, they did express concern that a ban by US regulators would probably also concern other regulatory regimes. [/QUOTE]
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