Today’s Red Tape Would Have Killed Home Depot’s IPO

Your editorial “The Anti-Solyndras” (Sept. 22) is right on target in detailing the devastating impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on job and business growth. You note correctly that “a few initial public offerings (IPOs) for trendy social media companies” does not negate this law’s albatross on small firms.

Most of those recently launching high-profile IPOs, such as LinkedIn, are large-cap companies with more than $1 billion in market cap. By contrast, when Home Depot went public in the 1980s, it was a small firm with only four stores. Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus has said repeatedly that the young firm likely never could have gone public—a crucial step for it and other firms to raise capital and expand— had Sarbanes-Oxley been in effect at the time.