The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the practice of companies retaliating against research analysts who provide negative reports.
“The Commission staff has been reviewing this matter and is currently considering several possible solutions for recommendation,” Chairman Christopher Cox wrote in a Sept. 1 letter to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Wyden had written to Cox expressing concern over published reports that programmable chip maker Altera had given the cold shoulder to an analyst who covers the semiconductor industry after the analyst gave the company a negative “sell” rating.
