News Digest for November 30, 2006

There are 8 items … Sun still pushing Schwartz’s web disclosure concept | Surfers glued to web for 11 hours a week | Is a U.S. listing worth the effort? | Accountants In Minority On Audit Committees, Study Finds | Confidence in Australian companies, CEOs, ‘down’ | Half of S. Korea Individual Investors Suffer Losses | Does the moon move the market? | Rivet Software to Open Source Dragon View XBRL Viewer

Sun still pushing Schwartz’s web disclosure concept
Nearly a month after the SEC’s chairman showed receptivity to Sun Microsystems’ radical proposal to use corporate web sites for disclosure, the network computing company is considering additional steps to push the issue.

Surfers glued to web for 11 hours a week
The average European internet user spends 11 hours and 20 minutes online each week, up from 10 hours and 15 minutes last year, an increase of 11%. Denmark leads the pack with Danes spending 12 hours 40 minutes a week online, while of the 10 countries surveyed, Germany is the laggard on 10 hours and 20 minutes. The UK, where the average user accesses the internet five days a week, is firmly in mid-table with people spending 11 hours and 20 minutes on the web a week.

Is a U.S. listing worth the effort?
In his research, Mr. Zingales found the premium for a U.S. listing fell most sharply for companies from countries with well-regarded corporate-governance standards, such as Japan, Hong Kong, Canada and the United Kingdom. He says that implies investors saw little additional benefit to companies from those countries being listed in the U.S. after 2002, and significant additional cost.

Accountants In Minority On Audit Committees, Study Finds
Huron reported that just 38% of corporate audit committees had at least one accountant in 2005, up from 20% in 2002.

Confidence in Australian companies, CEOs, ‘down’
The public is losing confidence in Australian companies and has a deteriorating opinion of the performances of those in charge, a survey shows.

Half of S. Korea Individual Investors Suffer Losses
Most individual investors blamed North Korea’s nuclear test and selling by foreign investor on the Korean bourse for their losses in stock market investments.

Does the moon move the market?
“We find strong lunar cycle effects in stock returns,” say University of Michigan Business School professors Ilia D. Dichev and Troy D. Janes in a research report.

Rivet Software to Open Source Dragon View XBRL Viewer
Rivet plans to release its source code to the open source community in Q1 of 2007 to encourage the establishment of new communities for open source development of XBRL technology.

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