By Dominic Jones on March 31, 2008
IN A move that portends dramatic changes in how disclosures are disseminated online, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has added news feeds for every issuer and reporting person who files with the commission’s EDGAR database. The development is potentially bad news for news release distributors such as Business Wire, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged disclosure, EDGAR, feeds, finance, financial reporting, microsoft, news releases, notice-and-access, rss, SEC, securities, XBRL, yahoo
By Dominic Jones on March 26, 2008
I WAS interviewed for 45 minutes last Friday by well-known communications consultant Shel Holz for a book he is co-authoring on the topic of “practical transparency.” Shel is one of the thought leaders on the topic of communications and technology. He has written and spoken about it extensively over the years, in various books, reports, [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged blogs, communications, conference calls, management, microsoft, news releases, technology, transcripts
By Dominic Jones on March 5, 2008
APPLE Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been a market darling over the past 18 months, so some observers are surprised that a majority of the firm’s shareholders have voted against the board for a say in the firm’s executive pay practices. The voting results were not released by the company, but it was reported at yesterday’s [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged disclosure, e-proxy, finance, Investor Relations, microsoft, nasdaq, notice-and-access, rss, SEC, securities
By Dominic Jones on February 24, 2008
WHILE his competitors lavish huge fees on his PR wire service, frugal billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is being thrifty by keeping its earnings releases short and referring investors to complete disclosures on the company’s website. Ironically, management at Business Wire, acquired by Buffett in March 2006, has argued vehemently against other companies following its [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged blogs, disclosure, earnings, finance, Investor Relations, IR websites, management, microsoft, news releases, NIRI, notice-and-access, SEC, securities, wordpress
By Dominic Jones on February 20, 2008
REPRESENTATIVES of three US companies that have used the e-Proxy default electronic delivery process in recent months have laid blame for low retail investor turnout on Broadridge Financial Solutions and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The companies say the notices that Broadridge is sending to investors urging them to go online to view their [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged e-proxy, Investor Relations, microsoft, notice-and-access, SEC, securities, usability
By Dominic Jones on February 19, 2008
THE US Securities and Exchange Commission is hoping to boost private sector development of XBRL tools for investors with the launch of a new graphic-rich interactive data viewer. The Financial Explorer application will be released under an open-source license to enable developers to create tools for investors to read and analyze company financial reports tagged [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged earnings, feeds, financial reporting, IR websites, microsoft, rss, SEC, securities, XBRL
By Dominic Jones on February 18, 2008
THE spotty success rate of mergers and acquisitions in creating shareholder value has long dogged investors who must try to decide whether a proposed acquisition by a company they own makes sense. But with the advent of employee bloggers on the open Internet, especially those who work for leading technology companies, investors may be getting [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged blogs, communications, Investor Relations, m&a, management, microsoft, rss, technology, yahoo
By Dominic Jones on February 14, 2008
I THOUGHT I wouldn’t have to write about the Microsoft-Yahoo! takeover saga again after likening the investor relations communications around it to watching two drunks wobbling and slurring their way through a back alley rumble. But I can’t resist. A couple of hours ago, the great Web pioneer and innovator that is Yahoo! fired off [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged communications, finance, Investor Relations, management, microsoft, shareholder.com, strategy, technology, xhtml, yahoo
By Dominic Jones on February 12, 2008
WITH tech titans Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) poised for a brawl, it might be useful for the two to see examples of companies that are right now using the Web to effectively present their bid propaganda. Ironically, the examples I have to share, whipped up after a quick Google News search [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged microsoft, nasdaq, news releases, SEC, SEC filings, technology, transcripts, yahoo
By Dominic Jones on February 11, 2008
OUR research has long found that big technology companies are among the weakest when it comes to online investor relations communications — and we’re now seeing that manifest itself in the Yahoo!-Microsoft dust up. I’ve already highlighted how neither company is making effective use of its website to keep shareholders informed, and I’ve complained aloud [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged communications, Investor Relations, microsoft, online communications, SEC, SEC filings, technology, yahoo
By Dominic Jones on February 11, 2008
Dear jerry, I’m trying hard to stay informed about your thinking around Microsoft’s offer to buy Yahoo, but your Investor Relations department is not making it easy for shareholders to get your views on this issue. For example, this morning you issued a short news release, which I found on Yahoo’s IR website, saying the [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged communications, Investor Relations, m&a, microsoft, microsoft-yahoo acquisition, technology, yahoo
By Dominic Jones on February 10, 2008
IF YOU’RE a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) shareholder, you’ve probably heard the news — thanks in no part to the companies’ investor relations departments. Yes, on February 1, 2008 Microsoft proposed to acquire Yahoo! for $31 per share, apparently comprised of half cash and half Microsoft shares, or something like that. [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged blogs, disclosure, EDGAR, Investor Relations, IR websites, management, microsoft, nasdaq, news releases, rss, SEC, SEC filings, shareholder.com, technology, yahoo
By Dominic Jones on January 24, 2008
This page consolidates all of IR Web Report’s articles about the SEC’s e-proxy process and default electronic annual reporting generally.
Posted in Articles | Tagged e-proxy, management, microsoft, nasdaq, NIRI, notice-and-access, privacy, SEC, shareholder.com, usability
By Dominic Jones on January 4, 2008
BROADRIDGE Financial Solutions consultants are spreading incorrect information about the SEC’s requirements regarding the use of cookies on websites hosting proxy materials. I’ve just seen a presentation in which the Broadridge presenter says companies must provide a website that is “cookie free.” Nonsense. The result of this misinformation is that companies, many of which use [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged corporate websites, e-proxy, IR websites, microsoft, notice-and-access, privacy, SEC, shareholder.com, usability
By Dominic Jones on December 10, 2007
PERHAPS I shouldn’t be so flippant about XBRL, a technology that almost everyone seems to think is a big deal, but I’m more turned on by the offbeat side of events around the financial tagging language than the serious stuff. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the XBRL U.S. GAAP [...]
Posted in Articles | Tagged blogs, EDGAR, finance, Investor Relations, management, microsoft, news releases, SEC, SEC filings, securities, technology, XBRL, yahoo
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