Regulation FD: The First Landmark Decisions

On November 25, 2002 the SEC issued its first decisions under Regulation FD. The Commission issued three cease and desist orders and one Report of Investigation. Prior to their release, there was considerable publicity about at least two of the companies – Motorola and Raytheon – while the remaining two – Siebel Systems and Secure Computing – were not generally publicized. This article describes each fact-intensive case and then concludes by outlining the guidance that this first set of cases provides as to how the SEC interprets and will enforce Reg FD.