Noteworthy list #9

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.

Regulation

S.E.C. Seeks to Curtail Investor Suits
Critics said that the moves signaled a major retrenchment from the post-Enron changes and showed that a lobbying push by big companies, Wall Street firms and the accounting industry was gaining traction as they seek to roll back what they see as onerous regulation and excessive investor litigation.

‘Vigilance’ called for as hedge funds boom
Germany won support - from the US and Britain among others - for a package of proposals intended to encourage greater transparency in the hedge fund industry, without calling into question its economic benefits. “Whenever something is growing as quickly as this, it bears looking at,” said Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary.

SEC slammed over hedge fund ‘wealth’ test
It seemed reasonable enough: Protect the little guy from big risks in hedge funds. But the public comments suggest little guys don’t want any help.

Governance & Sustainability

Activists shake up Europe
What’s going on in gentlemanly old Europe, where investor activism was once considered as strange and indecorous as riding a wild bronco? Formerly a bastion of family ownership and boards comprised entirely of insiders who answered to no one, Europe’s corporate landscape is changing.

Companies Pressed to Define Green Policies
Ceres will issue a list of 10 companies that shareholders say are not looking at climate change through an investor’s eye and may not be investing in alternative energy technologies. Many companies say they are bewildered at their inclusion.

South Africa: Bashful Activist Raises Hackles
Botha often speaks of “hanging up his shoes” as a shareholder activist, saying it’s an unprofitable hobby for him that consumes a whack of time. But the reality is, if Botha quits, you can be sure that the bottom will fall out of the market of shareholder activists — a market otherwise populated sporadically by people with personal grudges against companies, and the odd analyst who hasn’t yet been clued into the unspoken rules of not causing a fuss in public.

‘Short-termism’ hurts Canada’s pension plans: report
Canada’s pension plans should be forced to consider environmental and social issues when they make investments, and to disclose to the public exactly how that information has influenced their decision-making, a government-appointed committee has recommended.

Technology

Fake bloggers soon to be ‘named and shamed’
Businesses which write fake blog entries or create whole websites purporting to be from customers will fall foul of a European directive banning them from “falsely representing oneself as a consumer”. From December 31, when the change becomes law in the UK, they can be named and shamed by trading standards or taken to court.

Cisco buys social networking vendor
Cisco doesn’t plan to set up its own social-networking site to compete against News Corp.’s MySpace or Facebook. Instead, it will use Five Across technology to create software that will help enterprises better connect with their customers. In addition, service providers may be able to build services with the technology and sell them to their business customers, Cisco said.

Cisco to Buy Five Across Inc. to Enter Social-Networking Market
The acquisition, Cisco’s second this year, furthers the San Jose, California-based company’s expansion beyond its traditional business of selling switches and routers. The purchase also signals that social networking, popularized by sites such as MySpace and Facebook, is spreading to corporate customers.

Ensuring Accessibility for People With Color-Deficient Vision
If you do not consider the needs of people with color-deficient vision when choosing color schemes for applications and Web pages, those you create may be difficult to use or even indecipherable for about one in twelve users.

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