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Amazon.com:
Responsibility for Investment Information
NYSSA Corporate Governance Forum
The New York Society of Security Analysts' Committee for
Corporate Governance is conducting its fourth Forum in a program started in
1999 to demonstrate the applications of professional analytical methods to
corporate governance issues. With the support of the NYSSA's Committee for
New Media, the new Forum will address current controversies about
responsibility for the information relied upon by investors, using the
example of Amazon.com, Inc. (NasdaqNM: AMZN).
Recent reports about Amazon.com have focused professional
and public attention on the quality of information available for investment
decisions. Just as Amazon's market valuations seemed to validate the "new
economy paradigm," current debates about analytical methodology have raised
questions about the assumptions underlying not only the dot-com universe but
all businesses. Investors, like a company's directors and executives, need
to know what information can be used to distinguish reality from illusion.
With heightened interest in information quality, it will
become increasingly important to understand who is responsible for
determining the validity of the information relied on for investment
decisions, and for assuring its availability to investors. What should be
expected of the company's directors? Auditors? Venture capitalists? Activist
investors? Journalists? Securities lawyers? The SEC? And, among the NYSSA
membership, what is expected of analysts in various positions, and under
various circumstances?
At the Forum meeting, investment professionals who
created the Amazon controversies will describe the conflicting information
and valuation issues. Prominent authorities on the various responsibility
positions will then discuss their views of what role each party should play
in deciding what information is good, and in providing it to
decision-makers.
The meeting of this Forum will be held at the facilities
of NYSSA on the 44th floor of One World Trade Center in New York City,
commencing at 3:30 pm on Tuesday, July 11, 2000, and will be open to the
press and the public. Inquiries about attendance may be directed to the
NYSSA's Director of Seminars and Special Events, Nancy R. Cass (212/912-9249
ext.13).
As a not-for-profit educational organization established
by and for Wall Street's professional securities analysts, the NYSSA
provides a wide range of programs of interest to investment decision-makers.
The NYSSA's Committee for Corporate Governance, chaired by Peter F. Brennan,
is responsible for the Amazon.com Forum with the support of the Committee
for New Media, chaired by Greg A. Kyle. Gary Lutin is the co-sponsor and
adviser of the Forum program, and will moderate the July 11th meeting.
(As a not-for-profit educational organization, NYSSA
provides a forum for this and other programs of interest to its members, and
does not endorse any opinions or views:
disclaimer.)
June 29, 2000
Peter Brennan, Chairman, NYSSA Committee for Corporate Governance and
Shareholder Rights
(c/o MidCap Investors LLC, 50 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004;
212/668-3033)
Greg A. Kyle, Chairman, NYSSA Committee for New Media
(c/o Pegasus Research, 380 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10168;
212/551-7816)
Gary Lutin, Forum advisor and co-sponsor
(c/o Lutin & Company, 575 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022; 212/605-0335)
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