Theflyonthewall.com Wins The Right To Broadcast Rating Changes
A recent court decision allowing an on-line financial newsletter to report analysts’ ratings changes on stocks may have a larger negative impact on independent boutique research firms than the big Wall St. firms that originally brought the suit . In Barclays Capital Inc. v. Theflyonthewall.com, Inc. , decided earlier this week, a three judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in New York reversed an earlier ruling that had required the on-line newsletter to wait until 10:00 a.m., 30 minutes after the New York markets open, before reporting on sell side analysts’ ratings changes, and to wait two hours before reporting ratings changes that occur intraday. The Appeals Court found that reporting a ratings change without distributing the underlying analyst report did not violate existing copyright laws. ‘It’s certainly clear that this is not a good thing for research providers,’ observed Michael Mayhew, CEO and founder of Integrity Research Associates which advises institutional clients on th...