News digest for July 17, 2006

Study Finds Backdating of Options Widespread
More than 2,000 companies appear to have used backdated stock options to sweeten their top executives’ pay packages, according to a new study that suggests the practice is far more widespread than previously disclosed.

Broadcom to Take $750M Backdating Charge
Broadcom officials said the company will restate financial results for more than six years, and take a $750 million charge to correct improperly recorded stock options. The chip-making giant said the revisions will cover financial results for years ended 2000 through 2005, as well as for the first quarter of 2006.

Citigroup seeks analysts for emerging markets push
The recruitment drive will help the world’s largest financial services organisation achieve its goal to be the biggest research firm as the industry adapts to new rules in the wake of a landmark settlement over tainted research.

World bourses scramble for China action
“The Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, which followed several high-profile corporate scandals, caused a major shift in the landscape, with repercussions all around the world,” Yau said. “As with all complex new legislation, time and effort is needed by both companies and advisers to fully digest and interpret its requirements. This may have contributed to a stagnant US IPO market.”

Beyond Guidelines - Advanced Accessibility Techniques
Note: The advice on visible font resizers doesn’t make sense. People who actually need to increase text size DO know how to increase text sizes. Only those who have no need to don’t know how to do it — because they’ve never needed to.

Yahoo! Finance revises charts, chat, other features
White said Yahoo is working to upgrade over the next 60 days its stock quote pages, which serve as the starting-point for many investors in individual stocks. Financial blogs will be added shortly as well, perhaps filtered by a third party.

Free Earnings Call Transcripts on Google Finance
Of course, if you’re an investment professional, you probably already have access to one of those expensive transcript services like CallStreet. But for retail investors and smaller money management firms, Seeking Alpha offers transcripts on over 400 of the most widely followed companies.

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