If you lead a private company, what you don’t know about a new section of the Internal Revenue Code–Section 409A–may hurt you. Equally important, if you fail to meet the standards set up under these new regulations, you could cause major financial pain for the very employees you are trying hard to retain and reward.

The end of 2005 marked the second consecutive year of solid M&A activity. The value of ’05 transactions totaled $2.14 trillion, the highest since the 2000 high water mark. We tracked 6,528 middle-market transactions, up from...

It's the people, stupid. That is rapidly becoming the mantra for both buyers and sellers in the M&A arena. Having mostly taken a backseat to financial considerations when companies changed hands in the past, human resource issues are increasingly recognized as critical to deal success

As energy prices continue to dominate the headlines, several large players have made aggressive bets on energy continuing to provide attractive long term gains. ConocoPhillips recently agreed to buy Burlington Resources, a major independent producer of natural gas...

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) clearly is having a profound impact on the way corporate America is governed and managed. Developed with good intent "“ to elevate governance standards in the wake of flawed practices at public companies such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco "“ SOX has been assailed for going too far. That's been especially true for small public companies and those considering IPOs. The Act's section 404 has been particularly notorious, requiring independent audits, written sign-off on the validity of financial results by top officers, and much more.