[Am-info] SEC and Microsoft

[Gene Gaines]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24046.html

SEC suspects MS may have massagedresults
By John Lettice
Posted: 13/02/2002 at 12:17 GMT

The US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into
Microsoft thinks the company may have been holding back cash in
order to manipulate future earnings, according to the Wall Street
Journal. Astute CFOs who do such things essentially 'hide' money
from good quarters in order to pad out the more sluggish ones, thus
allowing their company to 'beat the Street' with monotonous
regularity, to the unbounded joy of shareholders, Street and analysts
alike.

Post-Enron, such practices are coming under closer scrutiny, but the
SEC has been scrutinising Microsoft for two and a half years now,
[more...]


Gene Gaines
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com
Sterling, Virginia