Goldman Sachs released its quarterly results last week over Twitter, abandoning the news distribution services it had used since becoming a public company in 1999. It’s welcome news for Twitter, which could use the boost, but not for Businesswire and PRNewswire, the two giants in the news services industry. Silence from the SEC suggests more […]
Congratulations, you’re a public company. Now what? An IPO is a crowning achievement for a company and its management, the fruit of much hard work. But being a public company can present challenges they might never have faced before. We have created some guidelines – called The Ten Commandments of Investor Relations for Newly Public Companies – to […]
Lumber Liquidators is getting nailed. An investigative report on 60 Minutes accused the company of selling unsafe laminated flooring. A predictable fall in the company’s share price ensued. But rather than mount a defense, Lumber Liquidators has been mostly silent. That’s making a bad situation worse.
The first earnings announcement for a newly public company is often traumatic. Just ask Dick Costolo and the team at Twitter, which saw the company’s shares plummet 20% after announcing results yesterday. A glorious IPO a few months ago made being a public company seem so easy. Now what?
I’m all for improving corporate earnings announcements. But the push by Yahoo, Netflix and other companies to broadcast their earnings from a television studio, complete with a borrowed cable-tv newscaster, is a triumph of style over substance.
It’s never easy to fire the CEO, especially if he’s been in the big chair for many years, like George Zimmer of Men’s Wearhouse. But if you’re going to do it, you need sound reasons – and you need to say what they are. The company’s board is learning that lesson the hard way.
Being a pioneer is tough and risky. It takes courage, skill and more than a little luck. And for every Lewis and Clark there are dozens who meet less glorious ends. That’s the lesson for Netflix, whose attempt to be a pioneer in the use of social media has run afoul of the Securities and […]
It’s embarrassing anytime a company’s earnings are released accidentally. But when the company is a giant known for its savvy technology skills, well, it’s a calamity. Amid the morning-after explanations, several questions remain unanswered.
Usually when a company sees its stock price sliced in half the CEO takes to the airwaves to reassure anxious investors and heavily stock-optioned employees. But flouting convention is a hallmark of Mark Zuckerberg. It’s the right strategy.
No one is covering themselves in glory in the aftermath of the Facebook IPO. Lead underwriter Morgan Stanley is battling allegations that it priced the deal too richly. Facebook insiders are being called greedy for the last-minute increase in the number of shares they sold in the offering. Facebook’s management is being criticized for signaling […]