Now, all that seemingly will have to change. For instance, the rule most likely will push companies that exclude the public from their conference calls to open them up to a wide audience. Colgate didn't immediately comment. An AmSouth spokesman says that in the past AmSouth has been careful not to release material information on its calls. The alternative is to say nothing significant on a closed conference call or release the information at the same time as the call, but those measures risk making the calls empty events.
Many companies seem to be still trying to figure out how to react.
The company doesn't even hold conference calls, opting instead to talk to individual analysts and major investors, so it'll have to evaluate the rule, a spokesman says. Then there's the issue of investment conferences. Each year investment firms hold dozens of investment conferences, some of which are open only to institutional investors. For instance, Goldman Sachs' technology conference earlier this year was closed to the media, the conduit to individual investors. A TSC reporter even was kicked out .