Below is an article on the SEC's ruling regarding selective disclosure earlier today. The article includes quotes from both SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt and Louis M. Thompson, Jr., president and chief executive officer of the National Investor Relations Institute. Investor Broadcast Network's Vcall service can assist you in reaching a broader base of individual and institutional investors, and market analysts and comply with the SEC's ruling.

Vcall offers live and archived streaming audio webcasts of official Investor Relations events, including quarterly earnings conference calls, analyst conferences, annual shareholder meetings, merger announcements, product announcements and press conferences. The information discussed during these events reaches a broad audience of top-tier investors while reducing the high-risk of selective disclosure.

If you would like further information about Vcall services please call 888-311-8225 and ask to speak to one of our Corporate Account Executives or visit our site at www.vcall.com

August 10, 2000
By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Over protest by the brokerage industry, federal regulators on Thursday adopted a new rule that bans the tradition of company officials disclosing information to selected Wall Street analysts and big investors before making it public.

The Securities and Exchange Commission received a record 6,000 or so comment letters and e-mails on the proposed rule, known as ``Regulation FD'' for fair disclosure. Many of the comments were from individual investors; most of them were in support.

The brokerage industry is strongly opposed to the proposal, saying it would chill companies' communications with the markets, while consumer groups support it.

The SEC voted, 3-1, to adopt the rule. It will take effect 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, which is expected within a few days. In a rare dissent, Commissioner Laura Unger said she shared the goal of ensuring that markets are fair and open for all investors but believed the rule as written ``casts too wide of a net.''

Fair and open markets do not require that all participants have access to exactly the same information, Unger suggested.

Under the rule, if a company discovers that it has unintentionally disclosed significant information selectively, it would have to make the information public within 24 hours. If the disclosure was intentional, the company would have to immediately make a public statement.

Companies found to have violated the rule would be subject to civil injunctions and/or fines.

Critics of selective disclosure, including SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, say it unfairly gives a privileged few access to company information --and the opportunity to trade on it -- that is denied to others.

``Like (a) neighborhood with gated entrances and tall fences, moving into the information loop is not always an option for many of America's small investors,'' Levitt said before the vote.

He said the new rule ``would bring all investors, regardless of the size of their holdings, into the information loop -- where they belong. To all of America's investors, it's well past time to say, "Welcome to the neighborhood," he declared.

In a recent example, clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has been accused in several lawsuits of warning a Wall Street analyst of disappointing earnings growth before making the information public. The SEC has been formally investigating the allegations.

The company has said it is cooperating with the SEC and has declined further comment.

The Securities Industry Association, the brokerage industry's major trade group, says it shares the SEC's goal of promoting full disclosure but maintains that the new proposal could have a chilling effect on the ability of companies and analysts to share information.

Meanwhile, a new survey of 462 corporate investor relations officials released Wednesday indicated that 42 percent would probably limit their communications if the proposed rule were adopted.

Louis M. Thompson, Jr., president and chief executive officer of the National Investor Relations Institute, said that in addition, 61 percent of the officials surveyed said their companies are now using Web-based broadcasts of their conference calls for access by the media and individual investors, up from 48 percent six months ago. Another 22 percent said they planned to start doing so within the next year.

The SEC proposal has been revised to make it clear that violations of the new rule wouldn't be considered fraud, only infractions of securities laws. It would apply only to senior company officials.

And at the urging of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, which maintained the rule would ``inhibit companies from communicating frequently and effectively with the financial press,'' the rule has been modified to exempt company executives' conversations with news reporters.