First, please know that PRWeb is not a disclosure newswire. I don’t want to mislead on this fact as I point out an interesting conversation occurring online about Reg FD and the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rules of disclosure.
If you are a public company (you have issued stock which is traded on an open exchange), you are required to follow the rules of full disclosure when disseminating information which could have a material affect on your stock’s value in the market. This is meant to prevent this information from reaching one audience before another thus creating an unfair advantage to act on the information.
Last October Jonathon Schwartz, Sun Microsystems CEO, blogged about how Reg FD didn’t recognize the efficiencies available from use of internet-based communication technologies. That apparently followed a letter he had written to SEC chairman Christopher Cox because amazingly, and maybe adding credence to Schwartz’s point, Cox replied to the letter via a comment to a later post on Schwartz’s blog.
For future archivists, the use of blog comment space by the chairman of the SEC to continue this discussion online is a milestone in internet history. Believe it. In the past it would have been limited to letters, emails or smoke-filled rooms with limited exposure to those who would be most affected until decisions had already been made.
More conversation has happened around this topic including PR Newswire and Business Wire contributions. Here’s a great recap as of 2/07. Most recently Business Wire’s CIO recently wrote at length why he thinks RSS fails the Reg FD test. And Dominic Jones continues his point that companies should not be required to use (pay) newswires to fulfill Reg FD. Schwartz has another post on the topic which includes further communication with chairman Cox.
If you are a public company, you need to keep your eye on this conversation and participate in it. There is a chairman in place at the SEC who is open-minded, able to recognize when technology has passed regulations and able to communicate in the open. How truly refreshing.
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[...] Reg FD disclosure rules get a new debate [...]