News Digest for August 24, 2006

There are 6 items today… Stock Spammers Profit And Target Firms Complain | Agencies to draw up hedge fund credit and risk ratings | Junk Bonds Surge as Asian Firms Rush to Europe, U.S. | Reality of stock-option drama is most errors were unintended | Billionaire goes muckraking for profit | Is A Friendly Board A Better Board?

Stock Spammers Profit And Target Firms Complain
The problem has become so widespread that Pink Sheets LLC issued a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission in April urging the regulator to impose stricter rules on stock spammers, such as forcing them to reveal their identity and intent in e-mails and requiring the spammers to provide the issuer of the stock with a copy of their promotional e-mail. The SEC has yet to take action.

Agencies to draw up hedge fund credit and risk ratings
S&P is developing a comprehensive set of ratings criteria that are expected to be launched before the end of this year. Moody’s and Morningstar are working on similar products.

Junk Bonds Surge as Asian Firms Rush to Europe, U.S.
More than two dozen Asian companies have turned to Europe and the U.S. to raise a record $9.5 billion of high-risk, high- yield securities they were unable sell at home.

Reality of stock-option drama is most errors were unintended
It also needs to be remembered that almost all of the options backdating investigations involve historic actions. In Silicon Valley time, the conduct may as well have occurred eons ago. Corporate America has undergone significant changes as a result of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and aggressive government prosecution that produced the largest fines against corporations and executives ever.

Billionaire goes muckraking for profit
“All Mark Cuban has done is figure out a way to screw people legally, and that is what Wall Street is all about,” says Gary Weiss, author of “Wall Street Versus America: The Rampant Greed and Dishonesty That Imperil Your Investments.”

Is a friendly board a better board?
Research by UQ Business School’s Professor Renée Adams suggests that increasing the independence of boards may not be so good for shareholders.

Related posts:

1. As XBRL mandate looms, SEC seeks urgent help with software
2. SEC greenlights "notice-and-access" news releases
3. SEC’s new guidance for websites and blogs posted
4. At Google Finance, Google’s profit miss not news
5. US firms love e-proxy savings, but at what cost?

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