December 20, 2012 Forum Report: Adapting to a Consolidation of Communication Services

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Forum Report

Adapting to a Consolidation of Communication Services

As those of you who have been actively involved in the “enhanced earnings call” project know, last week’s announcement of plans for NASDAQ OMX to buy the Thomson Reuters corporate services group[1] means that our biggest challenge just got bigger.

What we’d been looking for was a service provider that could assemble and integrate the components of an improved communication process in a convenient package that any company would be able to use. There are apparently good alternatives for the basic services such as IR website hosting and press releases that are needed to satisfy essential compliance requirements. It is also easy to find all the components that are needed to provide enhancements such as online Q&A, polling, identity management and analytics. We would assume under most conditions that the opportunity to put these pieces together would attract vigorous competition.

Now, however, we must assume that the two service providers most US companies currently rely upon for the assembly and integration of investor relations communication tools are likely to be preoccupied for the next several months. Under these circumstances we can also assume that other service providers may focus their immediate attention on exploiting opportunities to offer existing services rather than on developing new services.

This means that we may have to wait several months before any existing or new service providers want to develop game-changing communication tools that give companies the ability to manage investor relationships the same way they’ve learned to manage their relationships with customers, employees and other key constituencies.

While we’re waiting, Forum participants can expect the “golden goose” analysis of an activist proposal to provide useful insights regarding the practical processes of information exchanges to win the support of investors.[2] I will be reporting soon on the candidate selection process for that project.

GL – December 20, 2012

Gary Lutin

Chairman, The Shareholder Forum

575 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022

Tel: 212-605-0335

Email: gl@shareholderforum.com

[1] See December 12, 2012 Deal Journal (The Wall Street Journal Digital Network): "Nasdaq Expands Services With Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Deal." The Forum website posting of this article also provides links to detailed reports in NASDAQ’s press release, investor presentation slides, and archived conference call.

[2] See “Valuing Long Term Enterprise Success: a golden goose analysis” in the October 25, 2012 Forum Report: Addressing Ultimate Investor Objectives.

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