

A Higher Standard For The OTCQX
On December 14, 2015 the OTC Markets Group announced that they were strengthening the standards for their OTCQX tier. This is just one more step in the OTC Markets Group's ongoing mission to increase its status among regulators and investors. Changes include; the strengthening of the financial standards (including a continuing penny stocks prohibition), addition of corporate governance standards for U.S. companies and banks, and aligning "OTCQX U.S. Premier tier standards wit

January 2016's OTC Graduates' M&A Activity.
Three issuers graduated from the OTC Markets in January 2016. They all jumped to the NASDAQ and they all completed at least one acquisition prior to uplisting. Acquisitions played a pivotal role in all three issuers' ability to uplist. Below are short summaries of each graduates' business and M&A record. (1) Workhorse Group Inc. "manufactures electric drive systems for medium-duty...commercial truck platforms" and is also developing drone delivery systems. On January 7, 201


Why M&A Transactions Fail to Close
Back in November Gary Miller of SDR Ventures shared the "Top 10 Ways an M&A Transaction Can Go Wrong" on Axial.net. As the number micro-cap issuers growing through acquisitions continues to grow, it is good to keep the reasons why transactions fail to close in mind. The top 10 reasons why transactions fail to close are 1. Unrealistic Value Expectations, 2. Unclear Story Elements, 3. Quality of Earnings, 4. Length of Time, 5. Material Changes, 6. Customer/Vendor Concentration,

OTC Acquirers -- January 2016
The first month of 2016 saw over 50 acquisition announcements made by OTC QX, QB, and PINK issuers. January's micro-cap acquisition highlights include; Foundation Healthcare Inc. (OTCQB: FDNH) completing the $33 million "Acquisition Of University General Hospital" and Affinor Growers, Inc. (OTCQB: RSSFF) completing their "Second Vertical Farming IP Acquisition" in an all-stock transaction. Disclosed deal value for the month exceeded $320 million with the majority of payments