Every public company loves goods news. Sign a new contract? Win a new customer? Get positive results from a field trial? Put out a press release and chances are that the markets will respond favorably and drive up the share price.
The TSX has implemented a new rule that requires publicly-listed companies to obtain shareholder approval for any acquisition that involves the issuance of 25% or more of their outstanding shares. Currently, no shareholder approval is required for any acquisition involving any issuance of shares. The new rule will take effect on November 24, 2009 and is not retroactive.ÂÂ
Social media is changing the way that much of the world (including public issuers) communicates. More and more investors are turning to the web for their information than ever before and, while many public companies have yet to embrace social media for communicating with investors, the move has begun. At Equicom, we believe that social media can be used to augment a public company’s investor relations program, leveraging key messages and investor materials.
While the healthcare sector may have a reputation for being a challenging and risky segment of the market in which to invest, a number of success stories have emerged in 2009 that demonstrate the reward the sector holds for astute investors. While an understanding of the underlying science and technology can be helpful when making investment decisions in these companies, investment strategies similar to those which are used in other sectors apply for the most part to healthcare companies as well. For mature companies, the focus is largely on the same fundamentals that apply to any revenue generating business. For development stage companies, strategies may be more event-driven or based on momentum.
XBRL will allow financial information to be extracted from an issuer's financial statements and compared nearly instantaneously. This would potentially save analysts, regulators and other users considerable time, while creating a level playing field in terms of information access. So why do Canadian security regulators appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to mandating the use of XBRL?
