There is a lot of potential business out there for TAVA and other Y2K company's, eg.
SEC testimony by commissioner Laura Unger in June was an
eye-opener. "An astonishing 73 percent of companies have not
begun their code remediation," says Peraino.
SEC testimony is an eye-opener for investors
Year 2000: Trouble ahead, say
some
By Thom Calandra, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 11:16 AM July 16, 1998
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- The
Securities & Exchange Commission is
shedding light on publicly held
companies and their frantic race to
conquer Year 2000 testing hurdles.
The problem is that the SEC's analysis
of the Year 2000 millennium bug has
received scant attention. Instead, this
week and last, the financial press has
looked at Wall Street's early tests, led
by the Securities Industry Association
in New York, and Year 2000 issues
that could dog the U.S. Army.
Hancock Rothert & Bunshoft, a California law firm,
says one analysis by the SEC should send shivers down
the spines of stock market investors.
"The Year 2000 remediation effort is lagging," says
Peter J. Whalen, a partner at the law firm, whose Web
site, 2000law.com, is one of the better
repositories of data and news on the looming computer
bug that could wreak havoc with corporate networks on
Jan. 1, 2000.
Fellow partner Vito C. Peraino points out that SEC
testimony by commissioner Laura Unger in June was an
eye-opener. "An astonishing 73 percent of companies
have not begun their code remediation," says Peraino.
The last time we touched base with Peraino and
Whalen, they were suggesting that if anything could
puncture the high-flying U.S. stock market, it was the
prospect of a worldwide recession, sparked by a pesky
Year 2000 bug.
To be sure, lawyers have a vested interest in whipping
up the Year 2000 waters. Their livelihood depends on
the flood of millennium lawsuits that are expected from
shareholders and consumers.
Peraino points out that the SEC's most recent analysis is
based only on disclosures of stock-market-traded
companies that mentioned the Year 2000 dilemma in
their reports. "An amazing 30 percent of publicly traded
companies' annual reports did not mention the phrase
Year 2000," he said. The reports in question were those
filed after January 1998.
The SEC reviewed disclosure statements of 1,023
publicly traded companies. There are more than 9,000
publicly traded companies in U.S. stock markets.
Unger, in her testimony before Congress, said SEC
Commissioner Arthur Levitt this year will mail a letter
to chief executive officers, reminding them of the
significance of Year 2000 issues.
Peraino, in the best tradition of his legal profession,
sees darkness ahead. "It is possible that a significant
number of companies chose not to disclose because
their Year 2000 efforts are at ground zero," he says.
Potential legal fallout: mutual fund managers might be
called to task for holding stocks of companies that
decline to disclose their efforts to revise computer
code.
Unger's testimony on Year 2000 issues can be found on
the Web at sec.gov.
For those with a brighter view of corporate America's
handling of the millennium bug, Unger's report conceded
the number of companies "mentioning Year 2000 issues
has increased dramatically." It's just that most
companies are not following the SEC's latest legal
guidance on Year 2000 disclosure to shareholders and
customers.
Stay tuned, like for another 17 months. |
