Which companies care about retail shareholder votes?
NATIONAL Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) CEO Jeff Morgan noted in his weekly message yesterday that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants companies to help educate retail investors about proxy voting by adding links on their websites to the SEC’s educational materials.
Is SEC’s “prohibition on cookies” crimping US web reports?
FOR every new securities rule, there seems to be an unintended consequence. But one set of rules — the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) E-Proxy requirements – has had more than its fair share of negative outcomes.
More U.S. companies choosing virtual annual meetings
A GROWING number of U.S. companies are holding their annual shareholder meetings exclusively online in spite of shareholder concerns that virtual-only meetings may undermine board accountability and exacerbate plunging retail voting rates.
Turn your dull investor relations PDFs into branded embeds
DOCSTOC, the free document sharing service, has rolled out a new branded embeddable document viewer that can help to improve the usability of PDF-laden investor relations websites. While several other document sharing services let companies convert their PDF and Office-format reports into more engaging online documents, Docstoc is the first to let all users customize [...]
Dear Moody’s Corp: Type this fast 3 times
UNDER the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s controversial notice-and-access (N&A) process for the delivery of annual meeting materials, companies can mail their shareholders a slip of paper containing a URL where recipients can access their proxy materials online. Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) is one company that is in the process of sending such a notice to [...]
SEC should focus on access in “notice & access”
AFTER a long delay, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has finally proposed tweaks to its failed “notice and access” process for delivering shareholder meeting materials on the web. The model, which essentially transfers the decision to receive materials electronically or in print from shareowners to companies, has resulted in a dramatic drop in the [...]
SEC’s Aguilar: Fix e-Proxy or scrap it
SEEKING to improve board accountability to shareholders, one of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) leaders has called for the 18-month-old electronic proxy delivery rules to be improved or repealed. Commissioner Luis Aguilar said at the SEC Speaks in 2009 event in Washington on Friday that the so-called e-Proxy rules, which enable companies to [...]
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 [...]
SEC seeks to "blow up" forms-based system
THE US Securities and Exchange commission has launched a study that could lead to the scrapping of its 75-year-old system that requires companies to file disclosures on prescribed forms like 10Ks, Form 4s and DEF 14As.
SEC to rule soon on websites for Reg. FD
THE US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to address within the next three months whether companies can meet their obligations under Regulation FD by posting information on their corporate websites and in RSS feeds, according SEC Chairman Chris Cox. The issue is among three areas that the SEC’s Advisory Committee on Improvements to [...]
US firms love e-proxy savings, but at what cost?
DESPITE the risk that they might be reaping short-term gains while laying the foundation for long-term pain, 566 US companies used notice-only e-proxy mailings for their shareholder meetings by the end of April. According to figures compiled by Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., companies have saved about $132 million through lower print and mailing costs. Unfortunately, [...]
Reflections on 2008 annual report season
THE online annual reporting period in Europe and North America is drawing to a close — and except for an elite group of forward-thinking companies it has been a disappointing season. This was the first year where many companies had the option of delivering their reports on the web as the default option. This was [...]
Innovator: zu.com communications inc.
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: zu.com communications inc. [...]
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