Common Sense vs. Nonsense: What Thomas Paine Can Teach Us About Disclosure

April 22, 2013
by Cathy Baron Tamraz, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Business Wire
Cathy Baron Tamraz

Cathy Baron Tamraz, Chairman & CEO, Business Wire

Herb Greenberg, the respected CNBC market commentator who first asked whether Netflix violated Reg FD with its use of social media, subsequently put the issue into its proper perspective: It’s all about “common sense.”

Unfortunately, common sense seems to be in short supply these days, as attempts to redefine “full and fair disclosure” depreciate its value to market participants.

In a prescient post in July 2012 (http://www.cnbc.com/id/48086440), Greenberg asked whether Netflix CEO Reed Hastings side-stepped Reg FD by touting on his Facebook page that Netflix had set a new milestone in monthly viewing.

The provocative post apparently caught the eye of SEC officials; the agency filed a Wells Notice against Hastings and Netflix, indicating an inquiry into whether there was a basis to pursue the allegations.

Common-Sense-DisclosureGreenberg, in a December 2012 post, reflected on the surprising reaction of some folks to the SEC’s action. As far as Greenberg was concerned, the issue was simple.

“Bottom line: I’m all in favor of social media as a point of dissemination,” Greenberg wrote.” “They aren’t going away. But public companies and executives want to use them, and they have to play by the rules. That means, simply, issue a press release at the same time. Simple common sense, don’t you think?”

The SEC tweaked the rules recently by issuing a report on the possible use of social media tools for compliance purposes. Unfortunately, the agency’s report generated a lot of heat, but little illumination.

Thomas Paine, in talking about government and society, wrote his passionate pamphlet called “Common Sense” in 1776. Written more than 200 years ago, his words are timeless:

“There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of the monarchy. It first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgement is required.”

Common sense dictates that full and fair disclosure means that all market participants have simultaneous, real-time access to market-moving information. Business Wire has a patented news delivery platform — “NX” — that ensures network recipients worldwide have equal, unrestricted and simultaneous access.

Common sense dictates the overriding importance of network security, and the vetting of corporate announcements to validate their source. Business Wire’s network systems are audited annually by independent management consultants, ensuring compliance with the rigorous standards of securities regulators in multiple international jurisdictions. Additionally, Business Wire has close to 200 editors — and authentication procedures — to provide credible, vetted information to the capital markets.

Common sense dictates that an audit trail exists to protect issuers in the event of a regulatory investigation. As a point of fact, the SEC itself utilizes Business Wire’s audit trail when investigating companies that have caught their attention.

Common sense dictates that the recommendations of prominent professional organizations such as The National Investor Relations Institute be factored into policy decisions. Specifically, NIRI’s “Best Practices” call for a combination of Reg-FD compliant platforms to ensure the broadest possible investor outreach.

Common sense dictates that service providers adapt the latest technologies. Business Wire’s multi-channel platform has long embraced social media (it has 61 industry Twitter feeds). In fact, Business Wire is the industry technology leader with five patents, including two for social media innovations.

Common sense tells us that information should be simultaneous and ubiquitous. Excluding anyone from access to material information is the road to chaos, leading to a possible return to the “Whisper on Wall Street.” Ironically, this is the very thing that Regulation Fair Disclosure sought to eliminate in 2000.

Clearly, there is no substitute for common sense. While it is apparently lacking in some circles, the encouraging news is that the investor relations industry has a proud history of taking a pragmatic and thoughtful approach in meeting its professional obligations, as confirmed by this recent NIRI survey.

The silver lining, as Thomas Paine and Herb Greenberg have taught us, is that common sense never goes out of style.

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Posted by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

Social Media in the Spotlight: Business Wire CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz Talks About the SEC’S Guidance on CNBC

April 11, 2013
by Neil Hershberg, Senior Vice President, Global Media/Business Wire

Business Wire CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz is rapidly becoming the public face of full and fair disclosure.Tamraz appeared on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Tuesday, where co-anchors Maria Bartiromo and Bill Griffeth interviewed her on the potential market implications of the SEC’s recent guidance on the use of social media for Reg FD compliance.

Video Clip:

Tamraz quickly distilled the key issues of the disclosure debate, explaining that popular social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook — while effective in extending investor outreach — are only one component of full and fair disclosure. She added that social media complements other Reg FD-compliant channels, including a broadly disseminated news release via a legitimate wire service, posting on an IR web site, webcasts, and regulatory filings. All these elements contribute to a “Best Practices” disclosure program that equitably and inclusively serves the needs of all market participants.

She emphasized that Business Wire makes extensive use of social media tools as part of its multi-channel distribution platform, and that the company holds five technology patents, including two in social media. One patent — its “NX” news delivery platform — is key to the disclosure discussion because it ensures simultaneous, real-time access to market-moving information by all network recipients worldwide. Simultaneity and market fairness is what Reg FD is all about; Business Wire’s unique ability to meet this stringent requirement has been independently validated by patent authorities in multiple jurisdictions.

Additionally, Business Wire provides an audit trail for every release, which is a critical benefit in the event of a regulatory investigation. There also are multiple archives, including such popular databases as Factiva and Lexis/Nexis, that provide an easily accessible and reliable record of all corporate announcements.Tamraz has emerged in recent years as an outspoken advocate of Reg FD’s guiding principles: full and fair disclosure and a “level playing field.”  She has written extensively on the topic, appeared before regulatory agencies and advisory councils focusing on corporate governance issues, and is the industry’s most vocal proponent of providing all investors — institutional and individual alike — with equal and unrestricted access to price-sensitive information.

Press Release:
Business Wire Says Social Media Platforms Are Only One Component of Full and Fair Disclosure and Offers Issuers a Guide on How to Effectively Use Social Media Tools http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130404006180/en/Business-Wire-Social-Media-Platforms-Component-of%C2%A0Full

Blog Post:
What Can Louisville’s Kevin Ware Teach the SEC and Public Companies About Social Media?
http://blog.businesswire.com/2013/04/04/what-can-louisvilles-kevin-ware-teach-the-sec-and-public-companies-about-social-media/

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Posted by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

What Can Louisville’s Kevin Ware Teach the SEC and Public Companies About Social Media?

April 4, 2013
by Thomas Becktold, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing

Turns out, quite a bit.  You see, within hours of his terrible injury on the basketball court, fans were flocking to Twitter to offer their support.  Unfortunately, most were initially going to a fake Twitter account and weren’t engaging with Kevin Ware at all.

Following the April 2, 2013 SEC Report of Investigation that says social media accounts fall under the guidelines of their 2008 Interpretive Guidance Report on IR sites, we have put together some tips to help public companies in their IR social media efforts.

Social media engagement should be a part of the communications mosaic, but it is not a replacement for full, fair and simultaneous distribution of news achieved through Business Wire.  Investor relations professionals appreciate that their audiences are diverse and dispersed and use a wide range of platforms and content sources to access material information.

SEC_Blog_Post_Graphic

Social Media Opportunities for Public Companies

  • Social media channels offer the ability to gather intelligence and engage in two-way conversations, and as part of a comprehensive communications mix, are quite valuable.
  • Companies should establish official IR-specific social media channels on key platforms, even if they are not ready to use them.  If the channels are not active, put a disclaimer or keep them dark.
  • For those with a solid understanding of social media and their investor audiences, regular, consistent use of the channels for both good news and bad news is key.  Just like any other disclosure platform, don’t tweet or post only the good results and skip the bad ones.  Once you commit to adding a social media channel to your communications mix, stick to it.  If you discontinue use of a channel, communicate that as well.
  • Establish and publish a clear policy on your company’s use of social media as a supplemental channel to alert investors of disclosure press releases and filings.  Cross-reference those channels on your IR site, press releases and filings.
  • Listen to conversations and track sentiment and influencers, including your company’s Twitter “Cash Tag” – tweets tagged with your ticker symbol preceded by a $.  Business Wire now offers social media sentiment analysis reports for press releases via our partnership with NUVI.  For real-time monitoring and engagement, the NUVI platform provides an easy visual representation of influencers and sentiment based on the terms you choose.

Social Media Cautions for Public Companies

  • Full and Fair Access:  According to Pew Research as reported by TechCrunch, only 16% of adult US Internet users are on Twitter.
  • Privacy: Social media channels have barriers to entry and require the user to set up accounts and agree to the terms and conditions of each channel.  Your company does not control those terms and they may be objectionable to those interested in your news.  Chances are, your own IR site, as a best-practice, does not require visitors to agree to terms and conditions to access material news.
  • Fragmentation: Where’s Waldo meets disclosure.  As an IRO, do you opt for a wide, instantaneous Business Wire distribution or solely post to Twitter or Facebook and hope people find your material information?  Ask yourself, how do your investors, potential investors and media currently access your news?  Chances are, it’s through a widely divergent set of sources.
  • Simultaneity: The fact that users must click on a link to read a full-text announcement (that will reside elsewhere) adds latency and unfairness to the disclosure process.
  • Usability: Is social media going to meet the needs of your audiences?  Is it realistic to ask your institutional investors to hit “Like” on Facebook to get the latest earnings release alongside their elementary school friend’s picture of their latest cake or new puppy?  Should you expect your retail investor to stop relying on their brokerage account to access your news because it’s no longer there and instead subscribe to your Twitter feed?
  • Security: Don’t use social media as your sole means for disclosure: Look at Kevin Ware, the Louisville basketball player and what happened on Twitter just after his recent on-court accident.  Someone set up a fake account because, yes, we know it’s that easy to do.  And, that fake account had more followers than his real account.  Imagine potential investors searching in vain for the “real Twitter account” for your company when breaking news happens?  (Or finding that the official account has been hacked, as recently happened to both Burger King and Jeep.) Want to get a “verified” account?  Good luck —  and it might not make a difference anyway, according to this recent Mashable article. The Business Wire slug ensures a seamless, secure, audited experience.
  • Reliability: Twitter has been riddled with outages as it grows – think how many times you’ve seen the Fail Whale. Business Wire operates at 99%+ uptime.   With your news widely distributed, if one site or system goes down, investors have many others to turn to.
  • Liability: Leveraging a Business Wire distribution ensures full and fair distribution.  Tweeting a release today is akin to walking across a frozen lake in late March.  Your odds of making it across are good, not great.

Want to read what journalists and others are saying about the SEC ruling?  Here are a few links – the comments sections often provide greater insight for you to consider as a communications professional:

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Posted by Tom Becktold, SVP Marketing, Business Wire

XBRL Update: New Functionality for Interactive Data

June 27, 2012
by Nicholas Messing, XBRL Accountant, Business Wire New York
Nicholas Messing

Nicholas Messing

The upcoming filing season looks to be one of the busiest yet for XBRL preparers, with all US public companies submitting financial statements to the SEC required to include detail-tagged XBRL as of June 15, 2012. As the XBRL mandate reaches full implementation for SEC filings, the functionality of XBRL continues to expand through various initiatives including the DATA Act, corporate actions, and Business Wire’s Retail Report.

XBRL has increased its presence in the US Congress with the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, which the House of Representatives unanimously passed on April 25, 2012. Known as the DATA act, this bill provides for a broader implementation of data reporting standards to track federal spending data. Following its strong bipartisan success in the House, the DATA Act has been referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Similar to the Child and Family Services Innovation and Improvement Act, which was signed into law in October 2011, the DATA Act includes a significant reference to XBRL: “In designating reporting standards… the Commission shall, to the extent practicable, incorporate existing nonproprietary standards, such as the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).”

XBRL US released the 2012 Corporate Actions Taxonomy for public comment on May 17, 2012. This is the second version of the Corporate Actions Taxonomy, designed to tag over 50 types of corporate actions announcements, including mergers and acquisitions, dividends, redemptions, tender offers, and stock splits. Approximately 200,000 corporate actions are released each year in the US, and these textual announcements require time-consuming manual steps to process as financial data. XBRL tagging of corporate actions releases would enhance the efficiency of downstream processing across the financial community. XBRL US has teamed with The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to promote the use of XBRL tagging for corporate actions in accordance with the existing ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards.

On May 3, 2012, Business Wire became the first commercial newswire to map, tag and disseminate its own content in XBRL format. XBRL exhibits utilizing the US GAAP taxonomy now accompany Business Wire’s Retail Report, which is released monthly to Business Wire’s full national circuit. Published on the day that retailers announce sales figures for the previous month, the report tracks specialty apparel and general merchandise retailers’ monthly and year-to-date total sales with percentage comparisons across periods, alongside comparative stores’ sales growth data. To date, the April and May 2012 Retail Reports have been published with supplemental XBRL files, which may be freely downloaded and rendered through the SEC’s XBRL previewer, to facilitate analysis of retail sales data. Two members of Business Wire’s XBRL team, Senior XBRL Financial Reporting Specialist Belayneh Alemayehu and Junior XBRL Accountant Khondakar Moin, have provided their expertise to translate the Retail Report into XBRL. While Business Wire’s XBRL team has been proactively preparing for the final wave of the SEC’s XBRL mandate, we have also implemented a new innovation in interactive data.

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Posted by Amy Yen, Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

Web-Only Disclosure: Less Continues to be Not More

June 21, 2012
by Michael Becker, Senior Vice President, Financial Product Strategy

Michael Becker, SVP Financial Product Strategy

At the recent NIRI National event in Seattle, I attended the recurring panel on web disclosure.  In 2010 I authored a post-NIRI blog about a similar Web disclosure panel and I wanted to take a few moments to tell you what has changed (or not) over the past 24 months.

So what has changed since NIRI’s first foray into discussing web disclosure?  Largely nothing.  Microsoft, the panel’s moderator, web discloses earnings-only and continues to utilize a commercial newswire for IR and PR purposes (119 times YTD), Thomson still preaches about the benefits of web disclosure in order to promote its half-baked newswire, former SEC attorneys tell us that an 8-K is disclosure and the NIRI community is yet again rendered unable to answer the key question: As communicators, is communicating less fully and less fairly okay?

The reality is that web-only disclosure cannot stand-up to what commercial newswire services like Business Wire provide quarter-after-quarter without fail:

  • Editorial Efficiency: I teach at a local business school and tell my students (repeatedly): put down your project for an hour or two and when you come back, the errors will stand out.  As professional communicators, we do not always have the option to “walk away” from our work for a few hours.  That is precisely why a newswire editor is so imperative to your news release process.  Business Wire editors work 24/7/365 for you, professionally formatting your copy while catching thousands of errors each year.  Publish press releases directly to the web and you are essentially a “Wallenda” without a net.
  • Audit Trail Assurance: From start to finish, the Business Wire process is fully audited.  We know who submitted what and when, and which editor worked on your project every step of the way.  When the SEC comes calling, and they do regularly, it is the Business Wire audit trail that protects you.
  • Redundant Systems: Business Wire spends millions of dollars each year maintaining and upgrading its replicated, secure servers in San Francisco and New York.  With Business Wire you never have to worry about website continuity.  The same goes for our InvestorHQ clients too!
  • Truly Simultaneous Distribution: Somewhere in this discussion simultaneity has fallen by the wayside.  But it can’t.  In an environment that is getting faster and faster, web posting is slower.  Why reward those with multi-million dollar systems geared to scrape your website with privileged access?  Business Wire ensures simultaneity of your news delivery – - to the millisecond.  Disseminate over Business Wire and your content is ubiquitous to the world instantly.  Now that’s full and fair!

We at Business Wire are firm believers in technology and best practices.  Admittedly, our very vocal, public stance could be construed as self-serving.  Therefore, if you can counter that disseminating a full-text press release over a commercial newswire isn’t the fullest and fairest way to achieve Regulation FD disclosure, we are all ears.

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Posted by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

TRUNCATED TRANSPARENCY: The JOB Act’s Compressed IPO Cycle and its Hidden Implications for Market Fairness

April 27, 2012
by Neil Hershberg, Senior Vice President, Global Media/Business Wire
Neil Hershberg

Neil Hershberg, SVP - Global Media

Welcome to the new era of clandestine compliance.

The newly passed JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act) has come under withering attack by an influential chorus of critics. They are sounding the alarm that the Act dangerously dials back the disclosure obligations of “emerging companies” seeking to go public.

To be clear, we are not talking about mom-and-pop operations here. In Washington’s grandiose way of thinking, “startups” are defined as having revenues of up to $1 billion annually.  In other words, the majority of companies opting to go public will now get up to a five-year exemption from many of today’s more stringent disclosure requirements.

The controversial legislation has drawn fire from leading journalists, including Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times; securities regulators, including SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro; and shareholder advocates, including Barbara Roper of The Consumer Federation of America. The consensus view is that the JOBS Act is a regressive measure that threatens to erode many longstanding investor safeguards. Clever acronyms aside, the JOBS Act is broadly portrayed as weakening the safety net for investors.

The JOBS Act does create new channels for pre-IPOs to communicate with the investment community. However, the Act effectively closes the blinds on the closely monitored IPO pipeline, precluding the ability of investors to delve deeply into the dealings of companies under consideration. Under the new ground rules, prospective IPOs are now protected by a cloak of sanctioned secrecy during the protracted filing period leading up to their public offering.

The result is that clarity has given way to opaqueness. IPOs are now able to engage in confidential discussions with the SEC about their plans to tap the capital markets, until 21 days before the IR Road Show cavalcade begins.

Critical corporate information that was previously made available to investors months in advance — including financials and insights into the company’s organizational structure — can now be legitimately withheld from public scrutiny until three weeks before the investor marketing process gets underway.

What this means in practice is that investors essentially have about a month or so to evaluate the financial viability of a company preening to go public; previously, interested investors had a minimum of several months to do their due diligence.

There also is a more subtle side effect to today’s cloistered IPO process, one that further distorts the dynamics of a fair and competitive marketplace.

The SEC approved a rule change last December that allows NASDAQ to offer “free” corporate IR services, e.g. press release distribution and IR Web hosting, to IPOs and companies that transfer their listings from the NYSE.

Coincidentally, all these corporate services are provided by NASDAQ’s wholly owned subsidiaries, thwarting competition. The ability of NASDAQ to bundle IR services with its listing fees effectively elbows other service providers — many with superior, more advanced product offerings — out of the equation.

The agency’s approval came despite what we believe was a preponderance of evidence that the practice was anti-competitive. Ironically, SEC Chairman Schapiro was recently called to testify before a Congressional committee looking into the agency’s lack of economic analysis in its rule-making process. Clearly, the SEC should have done a lot more home work before rendering a decision in favor of NASDAQ’s rule change.

For all its political promise and good intentions, the JOBS Act has made a bad situation worse. Any pretense of market fairness during the IPO birthing process has now lost all credibility.

Today’s closed environment allowing IPOs to silently snake their way through the filing process has reinforced NASDAQ’s unfair competitive advantage, eliminating any premise of meaningful competition. Not only does NASDAQ have the inside track, but the track itself is now largely hidden from public view.

In perhaps the cruelest irony, the JOBS Act may result in the ultimate unintended consequence: potentially destroying jobs in a robust industry that has long thrived based on a model of fair and open competition.

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Posted by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

NASDAQ as SRO: An Oxymoron

October 10, 2011
by Neil Hershberg, Senior Vice President Global Media
 
Neil Hershberg
Neil Hershberg, SVP – Global Media

As a “Self-Regulatory Organization,” NASDAQ is proving to be a poor role model in terms of policing its own policies.

NASDAQ has twice promised the SEC that it would refrain from the unfair and controversial practice of “bundling” its IR Services, e.g. wire distribution and IR web sites, with its listing fees. Yet despite these repeated assurances — concessions made to extract approval of several hefty listing fee hikes — NASDAQ has continued to engage in its anti-competitive practices, blatantly ignoring its compliance commitments.
 
Hence, today’s problematic paradox: in its pedestal role, NASDAQ seeks to portray itself as a bastion of free enterprise, and patron of fair and open competition. When it comes to its own commercial dealings, however, NASDAQ clearly doesn’t practice what it preaches. NASDAQ’s self-serving actions confirm that it is anything but the paragon of capitalism that it purports to be.
 
And, in an act of unquestionable hubris, NASDAQ is now asking the SEC to approve its predatory practices:
 
http://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/nasdaq/2011/34-65324.pdf
 
NASDAQ is apparently seeking to parley the SEC’s recent approval of a change in the NYSE’s Listed Company Manual to rationalize its own proposed rule change. In reality, NASDAQ’s filing is its latest gambit to distort the dynamics of the marketplace, and to leverage its subsidiary holdings to gain an unfair competitive advantage.
 
The key difference between the SEC’s newly approved Section 907.00 in the Big Board rule book and NASDAQ’s rule change request is that the NYSE is recommending independent vendors to its listed companies. Conversely, NASDAQ’s proposal is entirely predicated on its sibling subsidiary’s wholly-owned service offerings, which collectively operate under the “Corporate Solutions” banner. Once the complimentary period expires, all future profits will go straight to NASDAQ’s parent company’s bottom line.
 
This systemic vertical integration provides NASDAQ with the pricing flexibility to artificially manipulate the pricing structure of its offering to the detriment of the entire IR services industry. It makes a mockery of the principle of fair competition, which is especially troubling given NASDAQ’s perceived Olympian stature in the free enterprise system. 
 
Does the SEC really want to be seen as sanctioning NASDAQ’s “stacked deck?”  We certainly hope not, as Americans’ confidence in the nation’s financial system is already seriously challenged.
 
NASDAQ’s opportunistic overture strains credibility on several levels.
 
NASDAQ trumpets that issuers are not obligated to take advantage of its complimentary services; the clear implication is that competition won’t be compromised.
 
Yet, NASDAQ itself says it is compelled to offer NYSE-listed companies complimentary services because the Big Board offers comparable services.
 
This is a tacit acknowledgment that companies are reluctant to forfeit these free services; instead, these “no-cost” services are a powerful incentive for issuers to remain with their current providers.
 
In other words, NASDAQ’s claim of open competition exists in name only.  Budget-conscious issuers are extremely unlikely to pay for services that are freely available. And that means that rival IR service providers are unfairly elbowed out of the process. NASDAQ’s strategy seeks to divert the IPO pipeline to its sister service providers, effectively stanching the future lifeblood — and growth potential — of the IR service industry at large.
 
Furthermore, NASDAQ attempts to rationalize its rule change request by saying that a comparatively small number of issuers will be eligible to participate in the program. This is a vacuous argument that is indicative of NASDAQ’s cynicism in raising the bundling issue in yet another guise.
 
NASDAQ’S rule change request is its latest ploy to “tie” its corporate services to listings.  The SEC has repeatedly rebuffed NASDAQ’s past efforts at bundling its services. NASDAQ’s recycled proposal seeks to provide a cloak of legitimacy to an anti-competitive practice that has failed to survive previous SEC scrutiny.
 
The SEC’s decision should not be influenced by NASDAQ’s understanding of the number of affected companies; rather, its decision should be solely based on the merits of NASDAQ’s proposal. And if market fairness is the one of the ultimate criteria, then the evidence clearly dictates that NASDAQ’s rule change should be rejected.
 
Following is the text of Business Wire’s comment letter to the SEC on NASDAQ’s rule-change proposal:
 
http://www.sec.gov/comments/sr-nasdaq-2011-122/nasdaq2011122-1.pdf
 

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Posted by Monika Maeckle

Disclosure for Dummies: Notice-and-Access Press Releases Compared to U.S. Mail Service

January 19, 2011
by Steve Messick, Chief Information Officer, Business Wire

I always respond to a staff newbie when he or she comes into my office asking a question with, “Did you read the manual first?”  I actually prefer to use a more famous acronym but, in the interest of political correctness, will not elaborate.

But that is an important starting point of understanding any technology.  You have to read and research it.  If you still need clarification, then seek out the true experts and ask questions. If you don’t do your due diligence, then you won’t be well-informed, and will not understand the value proposition that technology brings to the table.  So, let’s get educated and talk about the real technology at work here, and examine the competing value propositions of Business Wire versus the “Notice-and-Access” model when it comes to fair disclosure.

Warren Buffett defines value as not what you pay, but what you get for your money. This is so true with applied technology.  We can all relate to the earbud example.  You pay more for a Bose earbud than a lesser brand. But have you ever sat on a noisy subway, jet, or busy freeway and tried to listen to music or talk to someone on your phone with cheap earbuds?  Forget it.  The value proposition of Bose technology is that you pay more, but you get something that actually works, meets your needs, and delivers real value. That is priceless.  When you use Business Wire, you benefit from the value of 50 years of experience and technology.

So let’s get specific here about web technology and its role in fair disclosure.  The operative word is “fair,” which is the key deliverable. Fair disclosure involves three main components: simultaneity, synchronization, and security.   Technology plays a major role in all three.

Simultaneity means that everyone has access to public company information at the same time.  No one gets a head start in acting on the news; it is simultaneous whether you are in Sydney or San Francisco.  Some folks consider posting a news release on a corporate website as simultaneous, and “fair” disclosure.  Yes, I agree that posting a document on a web site means it is available for access by everyone (at least everyone with access to the internet).   But is it “fair” access?  Absolutely not, if you understand the underlying technology.

A simple example: your local post office.   Does everyone in your town go to the same post office at the same time to get their mail?  If they did,  you would have long lines, extended waits, traffic jams,  and the person who shows up late may get their mail a day later. A single web-site has the same problem: extreme competition for access.  If thousands — or perhaps even millions — of investors go to a corporate website at the same time (at the moment of access cited in an advisory alert) to view an earnings release or other material news announcement, it is impossible to get the information in a fair and simultaneous manner.   The site is going to slow down; some investors will get the news later than others.   If the company has not invested heavily in its website infrastructure, the site may crash, or become so slow that your browser will give up.  Not fair, not simultaneous, and ultimately a low technology value proposition.

Synchronization involves the seamless linking of technical systems worldwide to deliver market-moving news to the global investment community. The moment your news release is simultaneously distributed worldwide, billions of dollars in technology at companies and institutions around the globe are synchronized to provide the information to the investor universe — instantly. That is the behind-the-scenes disclosure synchronization that powers the global financial markets. That is the value of Business Wire technology working in synchronization with the investment industry, financial information systems, and major consumer portals for the collective benefit of institutional and individual investors.  The integrated, multi-tiered pipeline that regulatory information flows through generates opinion, analysis and recommendations, all of which build value for the investor.  Independent analysis and expertise is essential for retail investors working at home, as well as the trading desks at large institutional firms.  And it all happens as a result of Business Wire feeding the pipeline.  Simultaneity drives synchronization, which drives value.  Priceless.

Conversely, Notice-and-Access (single web-site posting)  advisories impede the information pipeline and disrupt the synchronization process.    Why does UPS bring your inventory to your door? The answer is so that your business can function flawlessly, as you designed it.   If you had to jump in your truck every day and drive to UPS, then head over to Fed Ex,  and then to the Post Office  for your business inventory, is that value to you?  Your business is synchronized by the predictable flow of inventory into your manufacturing plant.  So is the global information pipeline.

The seamless synchronization of financial information is crucial for fair disclosure. If every investor has to go to UPS (your corporate website, via notice-and-access ) to get the latest news, and then go to the individual web sites of companies releasing information at the same time, it will derail the work flow process. leading to delays and confusion. Fair and efficient markets will cease to exist.

Completing the value proposition of fair disclosure is security.   Value is in knowing that your information is secure and safe until the appropriate time to share with others. Reg FD is all about keeping information secure and private, and then simultaneously providing everyone with equal access.  Any breach in this process can lead to market volatility, investor uncertainty, and potential lawsuits. Is that value?

Keeping your information safe until public disclosure is a complex technology puzzle.   Business Wire’s 50-year track record in secured technology systems means that your information is safe and protected. Posting on a corporate website can be very risky unless the company has invested significant resources in security safeguards. Business Wire’s systems and networks are subject to rigorous annual audits to ensure that your information is secure. Security is at the heart of what we do, and a major element of Business Wire’s core value proposition.

There is a de facto manual for full and fair disclosure, based on real-world applications. Business Wire is proud to be a major contributor to the pragmatic, best-practices model that serves as the backbone of full and fair disclosure in financial centers throughout North America and the European Union. Not only did we read the manual, we helped write it.

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Posted by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

Web Spiders: Enough to Make Investors’ Skin Crawl

November 23, 2010

by Neil Hershberg, Senior Vice President, Global Media

Neil Hershberg

Neil Hershberg, SVP - Global Media

Forget about bedbugs. The real threat to anyone involved in the financial markets these days is spiders – and I’m not talking about the eight-legged variety.

Spiders — sophisticated web-crawling software – are seemingly rampant on Wall Street, wreaking havoc in the financial markets, and yielding big profits for select investors in the know.

There were several incidents recently in which earnings results were leaked to the market in advance of their scheduled release. The predictable result: widespread investor confusion.

Shares of NetApp Inc., one of the affected companies, sank sharply in the subsequent market volatility, leading to a nearly one-hour trading halt.

The use of these advanced search bots is certainly nothing new; what has become apparent is their disruptive impact on fair and orderly capital markets. More ominously, the growing use of these bots threaten to make a mockery of the principle of fair disclosure.

The problem is not uncommon. Ironically, Jeff Morgan, president and CEO of the National Investor Relations Institute, issued a warning to NIRI members about a week ago:

“I recently spoke with a member who told me about a situation where a news organization ran a story on their earnings 45 minutes before the earnings announcement was scheduled for release. The company released their earnings immediately and began an investigation. The company found that the news entity breached an unpublished area of the company’s online newsroom and accessed the confidential draft earnings release by using sophisticated, proprietary web crawlers. The company routinely used this private website area to post and format draft earnings releases prior to publication. Their plan was to do as they had done for many prior quarters and open access to the release once it became public. Unfortunately, the unpublished release was discovered overnight by the media outlet’s proprietary web crawlers. For IR professionals the lesson learned is to be sure your documents are secure on the web wherever they reside. And a word to the wise – the member noted that the news organization pointed out that this type of discovery has happened before.”  [IR Weekly, November 9, 2010 issue]

The major market-moving news services have long relied on spidering technology to ferret out news that hasn’t been disclosed via conventional channels. What has largely remained under the radar is how the wizards of Wall Street are similarly taking advantage of state-of-the-art software to identify hidden trading opportunities. It is a safe bet to assume that the financial news wires aren’t the only ones routinely trolling the Internet in search of actionable information.

While spiders are a major concern, issuers must also deal with another silent but potent threat: Their own lack of imagination in naming their important  news and data files. Due to habit or inertia, many issuers sequentially name their financial files, or use other intuitive names for identification purposes. This scenario potentially allows a skillful web spy to decipher the URL of material information waiting to be released to the market place.

As if all this depressing disclosure news isn’t disturbing enough, there was also the recent revelation that Google might be stacking the deck in favor of  its own properties. According to Harvard Business School assistant professor Ben Edelman, Google’s search results aren’t as objective and unbiased as the search giant has led us to believe. Edelman’s study concludes that “Google has made inaccurate representations to the public including to users, publishers, advertisers, investors and regulators.”  Based on his findings, Google may not be the unbiased arbiter of information exchange that it has successfully portrayed itself to be.

Clearly, “self-publishing” is more complex – and has more associated risks with dire market consequences – than may seem obvious. The costs and complexities of the required security upgrades are likely to far outweigh any perceived cost-savings. And the potential loss in market valuation and credibility in the event things go awry is by far the largest financial liability of all.

So what is the simplest, most effective way to navigate this obstacle course?  More importantly, what is the best way to maximize the reach of your message so that the market is fully informed? Hopefully, it should be obvious that posting the news on your web site won’t get the job done, and also is fraught with hidden dangers and unintended consequences.

A broadly-disseminated news release issued via Business Wire remains the surest way to ensure full and fair disclosure. All market participants have simultaneous, real-time access to price-sensitive information.

We have invested tens of millions of dollars in building the industry’s most advanced and secure systems for processing and distributing news. We are vigilant about security to the point of paranoia: Our databases, workflow systems, and public facing web sites are secured from spiders or anyone trying to gain unauthorized access to clients’ pre-released financial information.

And it isn’t just us saying it – Business Wire is audited annually in multiple jurisdictions where we are sanctioned to operate as a regulatory disclosure service. Additionally, as a proud member of Berkshire Hathaway, we answer to a higher authority and undergo a separate corporate security audit. These rigorous reviews, conducted by the world’s leading independent auditing/management consulting firms, certify that our network systems and operational procedures meet the most demanding global standards.

In a risk/reward analysis, web disclosure simply doesn’t make sense for issuers, and is a major disservice to investors.

1 Comment | Disclosure, Investor Relations, Reg FD | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

Disclosure: The Dawning of the Age of Precarious – Let the Sunshine Back In

November 18, 2010

by Cathy Baron Tamraz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Business Wire

Once upon a time, in the Year 2000, a wonderful law was passed that protected the interests of all investors in our great land. You may have heard of it; it was called Regulation Fair Disclosure.  Thanks to the great mind of Arthur Levitt, the “whisper” and good ol’ boy network that had gone on for far too long on Wall Street by those in the know, was finally curtailed.  Good triumphed over evil on October 23, 2000 – and all of our citizens were protected.

Reg FD served to shine a bright light on material information, so that now everyone had equal access to all news that could impact a stock price.  It was a great day for the retail investor, and all was well in our land. The new words of the day were “full and fair for all.”   Transparency and simultaneity were now the gold standards and endorsed and enforced by our nation’s regulators.

To assist in ensuring that all companies now played by these new rules, “neutral” services like Business Wire were touted and recommended as best practice and “valuable” newswires for the purpose of making news ubiquitous and available to all. This made sense because it confirmed the vital role they have played for 50 years in helping to keep “law and order” on the Street. Further, our nation’s regulators relied on Business Wire’s audit trail to help keep our markets honest. Business Wire’s proprietary news delivery platform ensured simultaneous, real-time access to all investors.

Regulation FD flourished, and all was well.

But alas, in August 2008, a seemingly insignificant event led to some unintended consequences – a dark cloud now hovered over full and fair disclosure.

 

Image by Flickr user r8r

 

In an attempt to embrace new technology and encourage more disclosures, not fewer, an interpretation (not a rule change) was added to Reg FD that encouraged the use of company websites as an enhancement.  This certainly made sense because it provided an added venue for material news, thus widening access. Our regulators wanted to appear current and relevant – and that made sense.  All seemed fine in our great land . . . the more, the merrier. Or so it seemed.

But then something strange happened . . . self-anointed experts promoting their own commercial agenda decided that restricting the information flow by limiting it to a company website ONLY, was now good enough.

Let the people figure out when and where the information is available. Let the reporters, analysts and investors troll through thousands of websites to find and report on the information. Let the algo traders, who have the most sophisticated systems, get a jump on the news and perhaps beat out everyone else. In effect, let the retail investor eat cake.

Even worse, questions around system crashes, redundancy, security and simultaneity were not even addressed, because those who were now playing in this arena had no idea of its complexity – and had not even thought it through.  What about those vital security audit trails?  What about protection from insider trading allegations with standalone web disclosure?  What about server crashes? What about redundancy and simultaneity?

Alas, darkness was falling . . . and the proof was in the proverbial pudding. In the few instances where this “standalone methodology” was followed, the truth revealed itself. Confusion now reigned, as investors scrambled to get the news.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY:

Reg FD’s level playing field is in danger of going “POOF”, turning a prince back into a frog.  However, this parable can still have a happy ending.  We can’t let the Holy Grail of full and fair disclosure slip away. The SEC did not intend it to be that way – just read the SEC’s CIFiR report, citizens.

This much we know: Reg FD was meant to protect all investors – and retail investors, in particular, dread a return to the dark days (and Wall Street whisper) of disclosure. Therefore, we ask our nation’s protectors to slay this dragon, to clarify both the spirit and intent of the Interpretive Guidance, and to let the sun continue to shine on our financial markets.

Leave a Comment » | Business Wire, Disclosure, Investor Relations, Reg FD | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist, Business Wire

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