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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerome who wrote (52827)	9/21/2001 4:02:00 PM
From: Sam Citron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

I may be a little rusty on the law of insider trading but I believe that if the janitor inadvertently picked up some inside info from an executive while sweeping his floor, he would be governed by the same "disclose or abstain from trading" rule that applies to the executive. He could be forced to disgorge any profits made trading based on possession of such information. If he discloses the information in a non-public forum, he becomes a "tipper". Tippers can be held liable, even if they do not themselves directly trade, for any indirect benefit they might derive from the "tippee". Caveat: I do not practice securities law. This is only an opinion and should not be construed as legal advice.

To: Jerome who wrote (52827)	9/21/2001 4:05:15 PM
From: w0z	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

If the AMAT janitor says something....thats hardly inside trading. ANY employee with ANY information that is not public knowledge. Most companies train employees with access to inside information about the rules. My guess is that something like workforce reduction would be not be announced to all employees until after or simultaneous with a public announcement. This is fairly easy to do for West Coast companies because the market closes at 1:00 PM local...so you do not make announcements like workforce reductions until after that time but before most employees leave work.