slang term for financial advertising listing acquisitions, new securities offered for sale, listing the underwriting parties in order of their participation-with managing partners listed at the top and participating members below. The name derives from the minimal artwork in financial ads. It lists only the relevant data of the parties to the transaction. Such ads are not an offer to sell, as securities regulations prohibit explicit advertising, other than through a prospectus
advertisement placed in newspapers by investment bankers in a public offering of securities. It gives basic details about the issue and lists the underwriting group members involved in the offering in alphabetically organized groupings according to the size of their participations. It is not "an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy," but rather it calls attention to the prospectus, sometimes called the offering circular. A tombstone may also be placed by an investment banking firm to announce its role in a private placement, corporate merger, or acquisition; by a corporation to announce a major business or real estate deal; or by a firm in the financial community to announce a personnel development or a principal's death.
