News Digest for December 14, 2006

There are 8 items … S.E.C. Eases Regulations on Business | SEC moves to ease some rules, stiffen others | SEC Aims to Fix “Hotel California” Image | Insider Trading of Derivatives Won’t Be `Tolerated’ | Tales of the unexpected under analysis | Second Life: What are the real numbers? | Designer urges writing of sector blogs for greatest impact | Three-Quarters of U.S. Web Users Are In the Fast Lane

S.E.C. Eases Regulations on Business
Responding to criticism that regulators had overreacted to years of major corporate scandals, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday issued a flurry of deregulatory orders and proposals intended to lower costs to public companies. It said the moves would not reduce investor protection.

SEC moves to ease some rules, stiffen others
U.S. securities regulators on Wednesday responded tentatively to pleas from companies for regulatory relief amid criticism that U.S. markets are losing their competitive edge to foreign rivals.

SEC Aims to Fix “Hotel California” Image
To give foreign issuers an easier exit, the new allowance would let a company deregister if, in the previous 12 months, its average daily trading volume of securities in the U.S. did not exceed 5 percent of that same metric in its primary trading market. Using 2004 data, the SEC estimates that 28 percent of the 1,200 foreign private issuers would be eligible to deregister under the new proposal.

Insider Trading of Derivatives Won’t Be `Tolerated’
A group of 12 securities industry associations issued a joint statement today saying the use of material nonpublic information when trading credit derivatives won’t be “tolerated.”

Tales of the unexpected under analysis
Blame hedge funds and Chinese Walls for a striking recent trend: attempts by investment analysts to predict – and in some cases to propose – ambitious mergers, acquisitions, or restructurings by the companies whose shares they cover.

Second Life: What are the real numbers?
There’s nothing wrong with a service that appeals to tens of thousands of people, but in a billion-person internet, that population is also a rounding error. If most of the people who try Second Life bail (and they do), we should adopt a considerably more skeptical attitude about proclamations that the oft-delayed Virtual Worlds revolution has now arrived.

Designer urges writing of sector blogs for greatest impact
Fleming’s Vancouver-based company, Corporate Weblogging, designs ‘turn-key products’ to help companies launch an interactive dialogue with investors and other stakeholders. It is also acting as a blogging promoter by operating a ‘knowledge center’ which aggregates a wide range of expert blogs and content on topics of importance to those in corporate communications.

Three-Quarters of U.S. Web Users Are In the Fast Lane
Seventy-eight percent of the U.S. active home online population connects via broadband. Their top online activities include gaming, instant messaging, social networking and e-mail, according to data released by Nielsen//NetRatings.

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