Vendors showcase earnings call transcripts at NIRI conference

NO FEWER than three companies at this year's NIRI conference are showcasing the hottest commodity in online IR since the plain vanilla webcast — the interactive earnings call transcript.

The new leader in the field is FDfn, the world's largest transcriber, webcaster and distributor of corporate earnings conference calls. FDfn generated more than 4,000 earnings call transcripts in the second quarter of 2002. The company intends to expand its coverage internationally to firms that conduct their calls in English.

FDfn uses a state-of-the-art process to stream a text transcript while a call is in progress. A full transcript, with each word linked to the relevant portion of the audio track of the call, is typically available within 15 minutes of the call ending.

FDfn has struck distribution agreements with a number of information distributors and recently signed an agreement to distribute its interactive transcripts to Thomson Financial Corp.'s First Call clients around the world.

Through its IR SuperCast, FDfn is providing public companies with a full suite of webcast services and the option to post an interactive transcript on their websites. Companies who use the service also have access to FDfn's full index of webcast transcripts, giving IROs valuable intelligence on their peers. (Update September 2003: FDfn has been purchased by CCBN, which plans to integrate the FDfn transcripts into its Street Events network for institutional investors.)

Shareholder.com is also showing off its interactive text transcript which it developed earlier this year for annual meeting season. The Interactive Webcast includes a searchable transcript synchronized to a slide show and video or audio webcast. The product also includes a close captioning feature, useful for disabled users, open office environments and those without sound on their computers.

Investors can also browse speaker biographies, email questions, read news or access the company's website material all from one interface.

CCBN meanwhile is highlighting its Event Briefs conference call summaries, which we wrote about in January 2002. These now are available to Bloomberg subscribers and via the company's StreetEvents service.

The company also reports that the IR community has become a key market for Event Briefs. IR professionals use them to obtain valuable intelligence on their peers and the questions investors are asking.

Meanwhile, CCBN is also prototyping a full-length interactive transcript linked to both the audio file and to its call summaries. Public companies can purchase Event Briefs to include in their investor kits and post on their websites.