Jury still out on Sarbanes-Oxley and IPOs

A San Jose Mercury News columnist notes that Sarbanes-Oxley has turned 6 and laments that he hasn't received a single invitation. Well, there were few parties in Silicon Valley, where Sarbox is still blamed for all manner of evil. But the columnist suggests--rightly in my opinion--that small companies that find a way to deal with the law will be better off down the road. Rackspace Hosting managed to go public. The San Antonio company attributed about $4.7 million of its $331 million in 2007 expenses to compliance with Sarbox. The hope is that the liquidity and gains in investor confidence will exceeds the costs. I have a sense that when the market and economy pick up again, we'll be seeing a lot more offerings. There's no reason why small companies can't find the same ROI that compliant big companies have.  

For more:
- here's the column