Coming soon: SEC advice you can (maybe) understand
THE US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is going to train about 125 employees to write clearer advice for issuers and their lawyers – but investors are unlikely to benefit from the simpler prose.
WebFilings causes a stir with easy-to-use financial reporting tool
A NEW company is causing a stir in investor relations and corporate reporting circles with its financial reporting software that makes it a snap for companies to confidently create multiple disclosure documents that automatically update when figures are changed in a single spreadsheet.
41% of heavily traded US-listed international firms shun PR wires
MORE than four in ten of the most actively traded US-listed international companies – including well-known firms like Alcatel-Lucent, Vodafone, Barclays and Petrobras – are not using paid PR wires to distribute their earnings releases and other disclosure information.
Sell-side research reports now in XBRL
NEW YORK-based broker Auerbach Grayson & Company, Inc., which specializes in providing global trade execution and research to leading US institutional investors, is providing its clients with a huge global library of equity research reports in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format. The new offering, which the brokerage is offering at no charge to its [...]
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 proposes rule to make XBRL mandatory
THE US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is proposing a rule for all companies to file their annual and quarterly reports in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on a staged basis over the next three years. Under the proposal, the 500 largest companies — including foreign firms that use US GAAP — will begin filing [...]
Build better insider filings pages with free feeds
WHEN it comes to disclosing insider trading on their investor relations websites, companies’ practices vary widely. Most firms give the information little thought, while a few go out of their way to make the information easy for investors to access and digest. But with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently adding free XML-based news [...]
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 [...]
Takeover bid sites, old-economy style
WITH tech titans Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) poised for a brawl, it might be useful for the two to see examples of companies that are right now using the Web to effectively present their bid propaganda. Ironically, the examples I have to share, whipped up after a quick Google News search [...]
Watching two tech drunks rumble
OUR research has long found that big technology companies are among the weakest when it comes to online investor relations communications — and we’re now seeing that manifest itself in the Yahoo!-Microsoft dust up. I’ve already highlighted how neither company is making effective use of its website to keep shareholders informed, and I’ve complained aloud [...]
Microsoft, Yahoo! IR teams drop ball amid bid
IF YOU’RE a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) shareholder, you’ve probably heard the news — thanks in no part to the companies’ investor relations departments. Yes, on February 1, 2008 Microsoft proposed to acquire Yahoo! for $31 per share, apparently comprised of half cash and half Microsoft shares, or something like that. [...]
My gibberish was first, no mine was
PERHAPS I shouldn’t be so flippant about XBRL, a technology that almost everyone seems to think is a big deal, but I’m more turned on by the offbeat side of events around the financial tagging language than the serious stuff. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the XBRL U.S. GAAP [...]
With billboards & website, activists target Steak n Shake
A U.S. hedge fund has launched a proxy battle against a small-cap fast food chain using an unconventional combination of billboard ads and a website to rattle the company’s board and get its message out to sympathizers.The Texas-based Lion Fund has posted ads on billboards around Indianapolis, Indiana, home base of The Steak n Shake [...]
Subscribe to feed