Noteworthy list #6

Notable excerpts and links to articles and reports we’ve found worthwhile reading. Some links may be intercepted by ads or may require free log-ins. Please don’t blame us for this. Publications have to make a living some way.

Corporate Governance

HP Fight Forecasts Stormy Proxy Season
Shareholder groups intend to make Hewlett-Packard—which is still licking the wounds left by last year’s boardroom spying scandal and the indictment of former HP Chairman Patricia Dunn—this year’s big proxy access test case. But other companies are likely to be targeted with similar resolutions in the coming weeks.

Scorecard on Corporate Governance in East Asia
This study indicates a divergence between the regulatory environment and market perceptions of corporate governance practices in the countries sampled. The survey results also show that, although the nine economies do not differ significantly in the corporate governance rules and regulations they have put in place, there is a significant difference in terms of market perceptions of their corporate governance practices.

Regulation

Proxy Voting and Economic Ownership: Getting the Big Things Right
It is great that the SEC has finally reached the level of sophistication where an issue this subtle - voting power vs. economic ownership - is in the minds of its commissioners.

Former Enron IR Exec Enters Prison
Mark Koenig, the ex-chief of investor relations at Enron, began serving an 18-month prison term on Wednesday for helping top executives mislead Wall Street about the company’s financial condition.

SEC, Euronext Regulators Sign Regulatory Cooperation Arrangement
Through this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the regulators express their commitment to close cooperation and collaboration to promote investor protection, foster market integrity, and maintain investor confidence and systemic stability in connection with the regulation of the combined group.

Surveys & Trends

Hedge fund cowboys failing to manage risk
Half of all hedge funds don’t measure the amount of leverage they have embedded in assets such as forwards and derivatives, the report said.

Investor optimism at highest level since Jan. 2004
Investor optimism soared to the highest level in three years as worries about oil prices and the housing market subsided, according to a survey by UBS AG and Gallup that was released on Monday.

Survey finds world’s CEOs upbeat on growth
The annual PricewaterhouseCoopers Global CEO survey found 52% of respondents “very confident” and 40% “somewhat confident” on the outlook for revenue growth over the next year. Confidence levels have nearly doubled since 2001, PricewaterhouseCoopers said.Seventy-three percent of CEOs said they were either “somewhat concerned” (40%) or “extremely concerned” (33%) about the zeal of regulators.

How U.S. very rich invest their wealth
Domestic equities dominate the portfolios overall, representing 43 percent of their assets, up from 41 percent in 2005. Millionaires reduced their exposure to real estate to 8 percent from 13 percent; and international investments increased to 10 percent from 8 percent

Day trading stocks coming back?
Although trading activity doesn’t resemble the frenzy of the late-1990s, electronic stock brokers such as Charles Schwab Corp. and E-Trade Financial point to a marked uptick in business.

Surveyed Managers Emphasize Socially Responsible Issues
Concerns over climate change, the environment, and corporate responsibility are in the forefront of investors’ minds reports a new survey conducted by London-based Ethical Investment Research Services, LTD.

Technology

Web Presentation Tools And Technologies: A Mini-Guide
Web presentation tools and technologies provide the means to deliver any PowerPoint-based or similar type of visual presentation to an Internet-connected audience, no matter where participants are connecting from.

New ROI of blogging report from Forrester
Following a three-step process, marketers can create a concrete picture of the key benefits, costs, and risks that blogging presents and understand how they are likely to impact business goals.

IBM’s Social Networking Push
With collaboration software called Lotus Connections, Big Blue competes with Microsoft as Web 2.0 expands into the business world.

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