Hey Gang…
The debate continues… the articles that I have read in regards to the subject of SOX compliance have addressed some interesting points both for and against compliance. I thought that I present them to see what everyone thinks. The points are as follows.

For Compliance…
Recently in the WSJ, there was an editorial that really questioned the registered complaints that public companies are spending a lot of money to meet compliance. The point of the article was that while there is an undeniable cost associated with being compliant; there is clearly a benefit to a public entity for complying. The article goes on to discuss how does one measure confidence in a particular brand and more importantly does the benefit out way the cost?

Against Compliance?

Recently in Barons, there was an article that defended public entities position against compliance and predicts that the SOX compliance will generate negative consequences by discouraging companies going public and more importantly establishing a trend of public companies reversing and going back to the private world. What does this mean and how realistic is this?

Two Cents?
While I am not qualified to predict what will happen to our economy in the short and long run if companies return to being a private entity, I think both sides can agree that company structures are unique and the benefit of compliance does not provide the same return for all companies. I think that it is safe to say that some companies will return or will stay to being private but is that a bad result? I think it is interesting that both of these articles stress the fundamental point that all of this energy is to protect the investors.

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