Why almost no one is complying with Regulation FD
LAST July, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved new guidance for company websites that covered a broad spectrum of issues that have apparently been holding companies back from making better use of their websites as a source of disclosure. Although the interpretive release provided advice on a range of topics, including links to [...]

At Google Finance, Google's profit miss not news
BIZARRE is the only way to describe the screenshot below of Google Finance’s homepage this morning — the day after the search giant reported earnings that missed analyst forecasts and sent its shares tumbling more than 7% in after-hours trading. By all accounts, Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) earnings miss was big news. It is on the [...]
Web 2.0: Think it through
A COUPLE of stories in the Financial Times are getting some attention because they’re calling into question the sustainability of the Web 2.0 boom amid a tough economy and a lack of revenue. The first article — Web 2.0 fails to produce cash — quotes Roger Lee, a partner at Battery Ventures, as saying: “There [...]
The real story behind RSS registration
JUST over 70% of the people who participated in this week’s poll guessed correctly when choosing the word I would use to describe the practice of making investors register to access RSS feeds on corporate websites. This is something I’ve been meaning to write about for the past two years but never got around to. [...]
6 things you didn't know about Thomson Reuters
HERE are some things you might not know about the new Thomson Reuters, which had its first day of trading as a combined company yesterday under the ticker symbol TRI in New York and Toronto, and TRIL in London. 1. According to Google Finance, the company does not exist. 2. CEO Tom Glocer is the [...]
Get your SEC filings widget here!
THE EDGAR XML feeds were not even a week old and already intrepid web developers were finding new ways to reuse them. Over at iBanknet, where they have been doing interesting things with XBRL call reports, Marian Albert and Chris Smith saw the opportunity to create a little tool called a “widget” or “gadget” that [...]
Traffic to Thomson IR websites slumps
IN WHAT may be an indication that U.S. IR websites are no longer able to attract and hold the interest of investors, traffic to IR websites hosted by Thomson Financial has slumped to all-time lows, according to the Alexa website information company. Alexa, owned by Amazon.com, measures traffic only of people who have the Alexa [...]
What were regulators thinking?
WE SEE a lot of stupid things in the world of public company disclosure, but few are as dumb as the “Annual Information Update” required by European regulators. Do a search of Google for “Annual Information Update” and you’ll see what we mean. Look at this one via Market Wire and RNS, the “company news [...]
10 steps to a better IR website
WE ARE forced to take a break from posting here for the next little while. But rather than leave you cold turkey, we thought we’d offer up these 10 points to contemplate and debate while we’re gone from the blog. We’ll see you soon, though, so keep watching this space. 1. Walk in investors’ shoes [...]
Why blog network’s “open CEO interviews” are a hit
SOME readers might be wondering if I’ve gone completely mad by saying this week’s three-day CEO open interview hosted by blog network Seeking Alpha represents the future of IR. You might be wondering why I am advocating that you put your CEO in front of a group of hardened investors, analysts and finance bloggers — [...]
Online trust survey is hard to believe
SURVEYS are good fodder for news organizations and online publications like ours. I see a lot of them and I’d like to write about more of them, but there’s often some reason why I won’t use them. Perhaps it’s because surveys have become an overused marketing device or PR tactic designed to influence a target [...]
How to fix your company’s Wikipedia entry
WIKIPEDIA, the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, is one of the Web’s most popular websites. As such, it is also extremely influential, which means that a lot people have a vested interest in what it says about a wide range of topics.
Citizen Investors 1, Fat Cat CEOs $435 million
By Dominic Jones BOB NARDELLI, chairman and CEO of home improvement giant Home Depot, resigned or was fired today after being hounded by shareholders for taking home one of the biggest pay packages in business even while the company’s stock floundered. Depending on who you believe – the Financial Times or Bloomberg — Nardelli was [...]