
Private meetings undermine fair disclosure, study finds
A NEW study has found significant evidence that hedge funds benefit from information they obtain in private meetings with company executives, adding to mounting research suggesting that selective access to management undermines regulators’ fair disclosure objectives.

CEO pushes Reg FD limits on Twitter
ALAN Meckler, CEO of WebMediaBrands Inc. (NASDAQ: WEBM), may be single-handedly redefining how corporate executives in the buttoned-down world of public companies communicate with their investors.

Stats show PR wires less effective than company web channels
STATISTICS from trackable links in company press releases suggest that even small companies’ websites are the most heavily used sources for financial disclosure information and that dissemination via PR wire services is mostly ignored by investors.

Is “Regulation Fair Access” next for investor relations?
AMID deep public distrust of all things Wall Street, regulators are coming under growing pressure to act against the billion-dollar business of private meetings between corporate executives and an elite group of traders and analysts.

Can a tweet meet the SEC’s Fair Disclosure rules?
AS MORE companies and their executives begin to use Twitter in their investor relations communications, regulatory issues are becoming a pressing concern for IR professionals and in-house counsel.

Regulation FD: learn from prior SEC cases
WHEN business communicators think about disclosure rules, they typically worry most about Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) – but for all the angst this particular regulation causes, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s list of enforcement actions is surprisingly short.

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.

Earnings calls “intrinsically public,” says transcript service
SEEKING Alpha CEO David Jackson, whose company ranks as the largest provider of free earnings call transcripts, says companies have no grounds to claim copyright over their calls.

Swatch sues Bloomberg, opens can of worms
SWISS watch company Swatch Group AG is suing Bloomberg for distributing a recording and transcript of its latest earnings call, but the case could have unintended consequences for the company and its European peers.

How do you know if information is material?
Deciding whether a particular piece of information is material is probably one of the most difficult aspects of complying with Regulation FD.

Google CEO shows how to step down, social media style
WHEN Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt announced that he was stepping aside from the top management job at the company, he did so in a way that provides a blueprint for the use of social media in official public company disclosures.

Apple’s earnings release goes missing — and nobody notices
IF AN earnings release distributed by a PR wire on behalf of the world’s most-watched public company fails to arrive on the world’s biggest investing website and no one notices, does anyone pay attention to press releases anymore?

Netflix latest to join web disclosure trend
NETFLIX, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) will become the latest in a growing list of companies to use its website as its primary channel for financial disclosure when it publishes its fourth-quarter results later this month.