In October, the Securities and Exchange Commission introduced Regulation Fair Disclosure, which prohibits companies from giving preferential treatment to Wall Street by selectively disclosing material information about their businesses. Gone are the days of corporate winks and nods when analysts used to share their earnings models with management. If companies want to give investors guidance, they're required to do so in an official press release or during a conference call that anyone can listen to. It's a fairer and better system. More opportunity for you, Mom.
Breakups can be good for investors.
It plans to carve itself into five separate companies, including Canadian Pacific Railway, PanCanadian Petroleum, and Canadian Pacific Hotels. The company wants to spin off media research arm Arbitron to shareholders. At the current stock price, therefore, Ceridian's remaining business is trading at just 17 times earnings versus 30 times earnings for comparable information services companies. Last fall, minority shareholders sued Worldcom to block its acquisition of the Web-hosting company's parent, Intermedia Communications. The company hopes to spin off its machinery business in an IPO by the second quarter of this year.