
When is information public and what constitutes a public disclosure for Reg. FD?
REGULATION FD was designed to put an end to the practice of companies selectively disclosing material nonpublic information to certain market participants who could reasonably be expected to trade on the basis of that information or to provide others with advice about trading.

CFA Institute releases executive pay report template
THE CFA Institute, the professional body that bestows the Chartered Financial Analyst designation on portfolio managers and analysts, has released a template for company executive compensation reports that it hopes will make annual pay disclosures “clearer and more relevant to investors.”

Rethinking UK smaller company funding
BRIAN Basham is no stranger to street fighting in the City of London. For the former journalist, PR man and chairman of research house Equity Development, nearly five decades of entrepreneurial success, high jinks and legal battles have only fuelled his affection for British business.
Research points to lack of level playing field in Europe
A TEAM of German researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt have published a study that finds evidence to suggest that corporate executives are sharing material, non-public information in private earnings calls and conferences with select groups of invited analysts.

Bloomberg grabs NetApp’s earnings early, second case in a week
NETAPP Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has become the second company in less than a week to have earnings information leaked from an unsecured area of its corporate website.
Investor relations can no longer ignore social media compliance risks
INVESTOR RELATIONS professionals at hundreds of companies are exposing their firms to potential compliance risks because they have failed to play an active role in monitoring, managing and engaging in their companies’ activities on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
A closer look at European IR websites
COMPANYNEWS, a Paris-based newswire and IR services firm owned by the Euronext stock exchange, has published findings from their third study of European company investor relations websites. The study looked at 261 websites of companies in nine leading European indexes and evaluated each for their compliance with a list of criteria. While the study found [...]
Do Canada’s securities regulators condone selective disclosure?
I WAS reading a hefty academic research report on the Canadian disclosure system when I came across something that stopped me dead in my tracks. The piece that caused my jaw to drop concerned Canada’s repository for regulatory filings. This is called SEDAR, and it’s a sad effort by the country’s provincial securities regulators to [...]
The perfect earnings release for 2006
WHY do companies issue full-text earnings releases via newswire services? Except for bloating the bottom lines of the newswires, who actually benefits from this practice? Sun Microsystems Inc.’s CEO Jonathan Schwartz has written to the SEC to ask the same thing. I’ve chimed in with how I think companies could do away with certain types [...]
Websites and blogs should be approved for scheduled disclosures
SUN Microsystems’ CEO Jonathan Schwartz has written to the Securities and Exchange Commission to argue that website postings should be recognized as full and fair disclosure under securities regulations. In essence, he is arguing that by posting material information on its website, a company achieves a level of dissemination equal to or better than that [...]
Pros and Cons of Options, Restricted Stock Analyzed
By IR Web Report Staff COMPENSATION at many companies is swinging away from stock options to restricted stock, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2005, S&P 500 firms cut options grants by 20% over the prior year and their value was 22% lower, according to Bear Stearns research. Nasdaq 100 companies, meanwhile, reduced options grants [...]