John, RE: Isn't this mandated in SEC regulations?
This is mandated by McData's attorneys, not SEC regulations. It is the safest and most prudent route, but it isn't required by law.
What is required by law is that the company avoid promoting a new offering. Many times things like press releases can be construed as promotional, causing problems. Over the past two years, a lot of dot com companies started pushing the envelope, however. For example, just before WebVan went public, they issued a number of press releases and disclosed extreme and obviously promotional things like sales figures that weren't in the prospectus. The SEC went bananas and made them delay the offering and amend the prospectus.
Because of situations like that, most companies go overboard and just stop communicating all together. Again, what McData is doing is not unusual at all, but it is not a legal requirement, just paranoid attorneys covering their butt. |
