From emerging regulation to deal mechanics, we write about the questions founders and investors actually ask — practical analysis you can put to work.
Insolvency is the state in which a company or individual cannot meet their financial obligations when due, either because liabilities exceed assets (balance sheet insolvency) or because they lack cash to pay debts as they come due (cash flow insolvency).
An in-kind distribution is the distribution of assets (stocks, property, goods) to investors or partners instead of cash, commonly used by investment funds when exiting positions in portfolio companies.
An independent contractor is a self-employed individual or entity that provides services to clients under a contract, maintaining control over how they perform work, distinct from employees in terms of taxes and benefits.
Indemnification in an M&A transaction is the contractual obligation of one party (typically the seller) to compensate the other party (typically the buyer) for losses arising from defined risk events — most commonly breaches of representations and warranties, breaches of covenants, and identified…
An Incentive Stock Option (ISO) is a U.S. tax-favored employee stock option type that, when properly structured and held, allows the optionee to defer ordinary-income recognition at exercise and qualify the eventual share-sale gain for long-term capital-gains treatment rather than ordinary-income…
An illiquid asset is one that cannot be easily or quickly converted to cash without a significant loss in value, such as real estate, private equity, startup equity, or collectibles.
A hostile takeover is an acquisition attempt where the acquiring company pursues the target company’s shareholders directly without the support or approval of the target’s board of directors.
Sister companies are companies owned by the same parent company but that operate independently of each other, sharing a common ownership structure without direct control over one another.
A mother company (parent company) is a corporation that owns a controlling stake in one or more subsidiary companies, exercising overall direction and strategic oversight.
A holding company is a corporate entity that owns shares (or other equity interests) in one or more operating subsidiaries — its primary business activity is not the operation of a trade or business, but rather the ownership, governance, and strategic deployment of capital in subsidiary undertaki…
