Monday, May 01, 2006

Do U.S. regulations drive away start-ups?


A venture-capital trade group says government regulations and other market obstacles are hindering start-up companies from going public and driving others to consider listing shares overseas. But it is unclear what kind of relief, if any, venture capitalists will get from regulators.

Regulations such as the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law, which includes tougher requirements for internal auditing and executive certification of financial statements, are particularly burdensome to small companies and "threaten to make the U.S. less hospitable to company creation," said Robert Grady, the chairman of the National Venture Capital Association.

The Arlington, Va., trade group, holding its annual meeting in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday announced a lobbying effort to try to get changes in the Sarbanes-Oxley law and to address other issues related to U.S. competitiveness.

See full Article.