It does seem to be trivial stuff. Nothing big.
from a previous case.
snip
Your stock, normally pretty stable, has been dropping all morning. No one knows why.
Just before lunch you find out that the Washington-based watchdog group, Center for Financial Research & Analysis (CFRA), has published a report that tears apart your company's balance sheet and doesn't like what it finds. CNBC has picked up the report, compounding the damage.
"We had no idea they were researching us," confesses Donald Eagon, vice president global communications and IR For Diebold, the Ohio-based producer of automated teller machines. "They never called to ask about their findings. We got a copy of the report and went through it line by line. They were right on some things, I guess, but there were a couple of things they'd misinterpreted."
Specifically, CFRA had picked up on unusually high inventory at Diebold. Coupled with low day sales, the group had concluded that Diebold's business had slowed down.
"We worked those phones for four or five days," recalls Eagon, who oversees a communications division of nearly two dozen people at Diebold. "We answered every call from shareholders. We called the sell side to make sure they were aware of the report and our response to it. We called our largest shareholders so they could tell their fund managers. I tell you, we were blindsided. When something like that happens, you just need to put your fingers and toes in the dike and pray."
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