How to do IR in a bear market
I WAS going to write a long piece about how investor relations departments can use web technologies to increase their efficiency and effectiveness while simultaneously cutting their costs, but Dick Johnson had a more timely idea. On his IR Cafe blog, which I recommend you add to your RSS reader, the president of Johnson Strategic [...]
Innovator: Nexxar/GeBer
IR Web Report’s Q&As are unpaid profiles of service providers that we believe are doing interesting and innovative work in the area of online investor relations and stakeholder communications. If you would like your firm featured in a Q&A, we invite you to contact us using our general email inbox. Firm name: Ge-Ber Unternehmensberatung GmbH [...]
An IR lesson from bailout crisis: Main Street matters
I’VE been otherwise occupied the last two weeks, so blogging has taken a backseat during what is probably the most interesting period in the financial markets that many of us are likely to experience in our lifetimes. One of the benefits of not being in the thick of every new development is that you tend [...]

Software firm "dumbfounded" by SEC's use of its IDEA trademark
UPDATE: SEC spokesman John Heine sent me three emails in response to this article along with additional materials related to the SEC’s own trademark application. A US Patent and Trademark Office document (PDF 228 KB, 12 pages) forwarded to me by Heine says: “The Office records have been searched and there are no similar registered [...]
Evaluating NIRI's IR website guidelines 2
IN PART one of this review, I mentioned that the US National Investor Relations Institute’s (NIRI’s) executive alert on investor relations websites includes a list of 14 Do’s and Don’ts for IR departments to follow. In this post, I review each of the guidelines and explain why I think they’re either good or bad. The [...]

Evaluating NIRI's Do's and Don'ts for IR websites
THE US National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) has issued a 5-page briefing on investor relations website practices based on a review they did of the largest 100 US companies’ sites. On one level I can’t help but applaud the guidelines because they are long overdue. Investor relations websites have been around for more than 10 [...]
Ex-SEC leaders challenge Cox's interactive data initiative
TWO influential US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alumni have raised concerns that broadening the use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) to non-financial information will increase disclosure costs, raise difficult legal liability issues, and create burdens on companies that are “formidable in the extreme.” Former SEC commissioner and Stanford Law School professor Joseph Grundfest, [...]
As XBRL mandate looms, SEC seeks urgent help with software
AS THE US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers new rules to require companies to begin filing their documents in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), it has been having trouble finding software experts who can help make those filings usable to investors. The commission put out a pressing call in June for contractors to help [...]
No changes please, we're PR Newswire's Disclosure Advisory Board
PR NEWSWIRE has trotted out its Disclosure Advisory Board (DAB) to say that they do not see companies changing their disclosure practices any time soon in response to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent guidance for company websites. They have issued a statement that basically calls for companies to continue to use the [...]

SEC unveils IDEA — and that's all it is for now
I’VE BEEN following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) moves around eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for the past few years and I’m confused about why they chose now to announce that they will be launching a new database to host XBRL for companies and mutual funds. The only real news at the conference, which [...]
Cox to announce IDEA will replace EDGAR
YESTERDAY afternoon, a number of bloggers got an email inviting them to a press conference webcast today with US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Chris Cox where he is supposed to unveil a “futuristic information disclosure system for investors and markets.” No further details on this new system were provided, but at least one [...]
Despite poor retail vote, SEC may relax E-proxy deadline
DESPITE a dramatic drop in individual investor participation at companies using the new E-proxy process for their annual meetings, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is studying “rulemaking refinements” that could make it easier for more firms to use the model. Introduced little over one year ago, the E-proxy process allows company investor relations [...]
Huge social network for US shareholders planned
BROADRIDGE Financial Solutions Inc. (NYSE: BR), the giant investor communications and brokerage outsourcing firm, plans to connect every US company and every shareholder in a massive social network that could rival Facebook in terms of members. CEO Rich Daly said his company’s investor network will be unique in that it will validate members as real [...]