SEC's new guidance for websites and blogs posted
THE US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published its 47-page interpretive release that explains how companies can use their websites and blogs to meet its requirements for public disclosure under Regulation FD. Here’s a Scribd version of the complete release, which can also be downloaded in PDF from the SEC’s website. See my initial [...]
SEC posts text of proposed XBRL rule
JUST in time for the weekend, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today posted the full text of the proposed rules for mandatory XBRL filings for domestic and foreign public companies. The proposed rules (embedded below) apply to domestic and foreign public companies that prepare their financial statements according to U.S. GAAP, and foreign [...]
Thomson dispenses IR advice via YouTube
SEARCHING for something online the other day, I bumped into Thomson Financial’s channel on YouTube. The channel is a mix of market reports, research updates and — what I thought was nice — advice on investor relations from the company’s Corporate Advisory Services division. Looks like they’ve been posting short videos on YouTube for about [...]
Business Wire fumbles error on its blog
AS MORE companies add blogs and other social media tools to their online communications, knowing how to handle errors in posts has become an important practice point. Business Wire (BW) is one company that hasn’t yet learned how to do this properly. And that’s a problem because part of BW’s business is advising companies and [...]
Weekend reading…
IF you can drag yourself away from the pre-Q4 mania, these are all good reads: What is Investor Relations Worth (Revisited) — Investor Relations Musings IR and the earnings conference call tap dance — Investor Relations Aware Do Retail Investors Matter Anymore? — DealBook A Guide to Speed Dating With Sovereign Funds — DealBook Dormant [...]
SEC urged to issue new IR website guidelines
A COMMITTEE created to advise the SEC on improving corporate reporting has urged the agency to update its eight-year-old guidelines for the use of corporate websites for investor disclosure. The Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting says there are “continuing concerns about the treatment of website disclosures under the federal securities laws that some [...]
Boards should adopt shareholder forum policies
SURPRISINGLY little seems to have been written following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) actions last November to establish ground rules for the use of shareholder forums as a corporate governance tool. Perhaps this is because the SEC has not yet posted the final rule release, or maybe it’s because the SEC’s other decision [...]
U.S. regulators cut 1,000 slacker firms more slack
THIS three-month extension the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been forced to give companies so that they can become eligible for the Direct Registration System makes you wonder what else is slipping through the cracks at America’s public companies. After all, it’s not as if companies weren’t given adequate notice of the need [...]
CEO access to the highest bidder, WTF?
SOMETHING about this story troubles me deeply. National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) board member and Regal Entertainment Group VP of IR Don De Laria recently wrote an enthusiastic blog post detailing how a certain firm, Hanley & Associates LLC, is charging buy-side investors a fee to have one-on-one meetings with company top brass. According to [...]
Lululemon takes the PR low road
Updated: Canada law enforcement agency moves against company, which agrees to pull “therapeutic and performance” claims from clothing tags. EARLIER this week, I wrote about how a short-seller had inspired The New York Times to conduct lab tests that found no evidence of seaweed content in clothing sold by Lululemon athletica (NASDAQ:LULU). In the prospectus [...]
Where's IR leadership on firms who track investors?
CLIENTS of Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.’s (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Shareholder.com investor relations website hosting business have more reasons to question the wisdom of their vendor’s continued use of cookies to track and compile detailed dossiers on investors without their knowledge. A coalition of privacy advocates will hold a news conference today at which, according Ad Age, [...]
Governance websites behind the times
GIVEN the vast amounts of corporate governance information that companies have been forced to publish in recent years, the findings of a survey released yesterday may come as something of a surprise. According to the survey by research firm Affluent Dynamics, which polled 200 high-net-worth investors and financial advisors, 67% of financial advisors and 58% [...]
Shareholder meetings back in Web spotlight
AFTER years of neglect by all but a few companies, shareholder meetings are staging a significant comeback on the Web. Corporations big and small are investing in their online shareholder meeting communications in light of rising shareholder activism, new electronic delivery laws, and an increased focus on stakeholder engagement. In our new guidelines for shareholder [...]
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