
Disney’s earnings release leak shocks stock
THE Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) yesterday saw its stock plunge after the company’s earnings release, disclosing worse than expected results, was discovered on its website at least 30 minutes prior to the normal release time.

Microsoft latest to dump PR wires for earnings releases
MICROSOFT corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has become the latest high-profile company to end the decades-old practice of using a paid PR wire service to distribute its quarterly earnings announcements – a move that acknowledges the real-time capabilities of the web.

Accounting professors find social media improves stock liquidity: interview
ACCOUNTING professors at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan recently published a study with a rather startling finding — using social media like Twitter can help companies overcome a lack of media and sell-side analyst coverage and improve liquidity for their stock.

MarkThisDate: a great tool for IR website calendars
EVENT calendars on investor relations websites are one of the most important features companies can offer – but the calendar tools available from all IR website vendors today are little changed from what they were 10 years ago.

Weekly roundup: stuff that got us thinking in the week ending Aug. 20
This is a weekly feature at IR Web Report highlighting articles and commentaries of interest to our readers.

How hedge funds analyze your earnings calls
NEWS this week from the Wall Street Journal that academics have found key language markers of executive deception on earnings calls won’t come as a surprise to some of the world’s biggest hedge funds.

Broadridge on SEC proxy plumbing: be careful what you wish for
RICH DALY, the CEO of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), has responded to investor concerns about the potential impact on his company of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proxy system review, saying critics want to take the system back 45 years and companies’ costs could more than double in an unregulated market.

Will Europe ever get its own EDGAR?
EUROPEAN Union securities regulators last week put out a paper on creating a central disclosure system — but with so many vested interests to placate it seems implausible that investors will soon have a single gateway to EU securities filings.

Most US investors get PR wire releases 80 seconds after Wall Street
A SIMPLE analysis of 100 company news releases shows that the average delay between when PR wire services release the information to Wall Street and when most non-professional investors actually have access to it on Yahoo! Finance is just over 83 seconds.
Google drops PR wire for earnings, but only Pac-Man irks investors
WHEN Internet giant Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) reported its second-quarter 2010 earnings last week it did so without using a paid PR wire service – a controversial move that some predicted would create challenges for the disclosure ecosystem.
How Expedia uses advisory releases
EXPEDIA, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is one US company that has for several quarters used an advisory release process for its quarterly earnings releases. The process has run smoothly and resulted in an increase in the number of investors accessing the results from the company’s website, which recently was upgraded to a new platform hosted by [...]
5 common questions about web disclosure
ONE OF THE hottest topics of conversation in the US investor relations profession right now is using the web for disclosure and communications to investors. It was a dominant theme at the recent National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) annual conference in San Diego, and the discussion has continued in various trade publications and online forums.
Undisclosed paid content on Wikinvest
SEVERAL months ago, I stumbled across information in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that raises important questions about the integrity of information posted on the popular Wikinvest website.