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Our Roadmap: How to Comply with the SEC’s New Regulation FD Guidance

By broc

Our Roadmap: How to Comply with the SEC’s New Regulation FD Guidance

I just wrapped up the Fall issue of InvestorRelationships.com, which includes an article entitled, "Our Roadmap: How to Comply with the SEC’s New Regulation FD Guidance." The article doesn't merely summarize what the SEC just issued - it goes far beyond that. It includes numerous specific examples of what you should - and should not - be doing to comply with the SEC's new guidance.

In particular, the article provides detailed implementation guidance about how you can build a “recognized channel of distribution” and “broadly disseminate” under the SEC's new guidance. Among other topics, I address:

- Website Marketing and Maintenance: The Disclosure Committee’s Role
- The IR Web Pages: Search, Design and Accessibility
- The Challenges of Media Awareness
- Web 2.0: Pushing It Out

If you try a no-risk trial for InvestorRelationships.com for 2009, you get access to this Fall issue for free. Note that membership rates are very reasonable, starting at $295 for a single user through the end of '09. And membership gets you free admission to the upcoming InvestorRelationships.com webconference: "The SEC's New Corporate Website Guidance: Everything You Need to Know – And Do NOW."

If you already have received an ID/password for InvestorRelationships.com this year, you can renew your membership for 2009 now (and get free access to this webconference, etc. for another year).

Did Bill Gates Wiggle His Tush? That's Some Nonverbal Communication

Not many marketing types think highly of the new Microsoft advertisement featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld (see this WSJ article). Personally, I liked it - particularly when Jerry fitted Bill's feet for shoes. A size ten!

If you haven't seen it, the TV commercial ends with Jerry soliciting nonpublic material information from Bill regarding whether Microsoft will be launching edible personal computers that are moist and chewy in the future. He asks Bill to give him a "sign" if something big is on the horizon, something like adjusting his shorts. And then Bill wiggles his tush.

This presents a perfect example of the type of nonverbal communication that Regulation FD applies to. I'm sure some of you remember the SEC's 2003 enforcement case against Schering-Plough which focused on nonverbal cues. In that case, the company's then-CEO disclosed "negative and material, nonpublic information regarding the company's earnings prospects" at private meetings "through a combination of spoken language, tone, emphasis, and demeanor." Bill, keep those hips in check!

The Impact of Regulation FD on the Flow of Information

A while back, CFO.com ran this article that described a 2007 study on Regulation FD, which concluded that investors received less information after the adoption of the disclosure rule compared to before it. Given that growing numbers of companies are foregoing earnings forecasts, I can believe the report's findings.

- Broc Romanek

Full post as published by The Corporate Counsel.net Blog on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).