Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are between a rock and a hard place. To attract risk capital investors, CFO's company must be public. But average cost of taking a company public in United States is over $1,500,000. If CFO decides to raise money as a private company from venture capitalists, odds of success are less than one-in-ten thousand.

For too many CFOs, solution is to find a Corporate Dr. Kevorkian and take their private company public via a reverse merger. While immediate costs of doing a reverse merger are anywhere from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars, long-term costs are measured in tens of millions of dollars. A reverse merger is a suicide machine where costs are almost always certain to kill patient.

The formula for doing a reverse merger is simple. The publicly trading company issues sufficient shares to acquire a private company. The issued shares give private company insiders majority of shares in public company. As majority shareholders, private company insiders appoint their own Board of Directors and officers. The public company's name is usually changed to that of private company. The result is private company is now a public company.

A reverse merger example would be a bankrupt company trading on Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) with five million shares issued. The company is called a 'shell."

There is also a proposal to extend period during which landlords can require owners to repay some or all, of discount given on a property in case of an early resale.

Currently, purchasers of a property that has been bought on right to buy scheme, can sell after 3 years with no requirement to make any repayments of discount. The proposal suggests this should be extended to 5 years. Therefore, anyone who sells a property bought under right to buy scheme within 5 years of purchase, will be requested to repay a percentage of given discount. Repayment figures are as follows: -

Currently Sale within 1st year – 100% Sale within 2nd year – 66% Sale within 3rd year – 33%

Proposal amounts Sale within 1st year – 100% Sale within 2nd year - 80% Sale within 3rd year - 60% Sale within 4th year - 40% Sale within 5th year – 20%

With predicted drop in house prices in 2005 (meaning lower property valuations) combined with new proposals further restrictions on council tenants wishing to purchase, now may be a good time to consider a right to buy.

The proposed changes in right to buy scheme include measures to reduce attraction of purchasing a discounted property with prospect of selling it to make a profit.