SOX Center

Q. Your company recently announced a new policy to monitor all outgoing e-mail, including personal correspondence. How concerned should you be?

A. Don’t panic, but definitely watch your back. Mary Crane, president of M C & Associates, a training and consulting firm in Denver, said that if employers actively monitored outgoing e-mail traffic, messages about anything other than work might attract unwanted attention.

“The last thing you want to do is make your employer think you’re slacking off,” Ms. Crane said. “Nothing you’re doing on e-mail is worth jeopardizing your career.”

Q. Do employers have the right to monitor e-mail?

A. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and other regulations require publicly traded companies to archive all e-mail messages. Employers in the private sector also have complete authority to scrutinize every word, provided that they have established a policy and put it into writing.

Don Ulsch, a lawyer at the law firm Jefferson Wells of Brookfield, Wis., said that although this might seem like an invasion of privacy, it isn’t. “The companies own the computer and servers,” said Mr. Ulsch, who heads the firm’s technology risk management practice in Boston. “Anything you do on this equipment actually is information that belongs to them.”

Mr. Ulsch noted that some states might offer protections for employees who work from home and use work computers for personal purposes after business hours.

NYT: The Risk Is All Yours in Office E-Mail

Press Release

Robert E. Schmermer, Jr.

President & CEO

Dear Shareholders,

I am pleased to report that based on a majority vote of outstanding shareholders, Meritage successfully completed a “Going Private” transaction on January 23, 2007. As a result, Meritage has withdrawn its listing (MHG) on the American Stock Exchange and terminated the registration of its common shares with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This move allows the Company to avoid the ever-increasing SEC costs (including Sarbanes Oxley Act costs) that disproportionately affect smaller public companies like Meritage.

Marketwire: Meritage Completes “Going Private” Transaction

Hong Kong surged past New York this year and became the world’s second most popular place _ after London _ for companies to float new stock listings.

The city’s amazing success was due to several factors, analysts say. Being next door to mainland China’s booming economy was a huge help. Tough new U.S. accounting rules have discouraged many companies from listing in America.

Hong Kong’s big advantage now is that it has a solid legal and financial system that can handle big initial public offerings, or IPOs. Shanghai isn’t close to being able to match this city, and that’s why a parade of China’s biggest banks decided to launch record-breaking IPOs in Hong Kong this year.

One of them was the world’s biggest ever: the $21.9 billion offering in October by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the mainland’s largest lender.

With two weeks left in the year, Hong Kong has raked in HK$307.7 billion, or US$39.57 billion, in IPOs _ nearly twice as much as the HK$165.7 billion raised last year, according to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., the listed firm that operates the stock exchange.

London was the world leader for IPO equity raised, with $48.92 billion raised, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. Hong Kong was second and the New York Stock Exchange lagged back in third with $33.61 billion, according to the most recent WFE figures, which included the January-November period.

That may be partly because some American companies are holding back from listing in the U.S. due to the strict rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley anti-fraud law, opting instead to stay private.

Washingtonpost.com: Hong Kong Passes NYC in Attracting IPOs

This posting is sponsored by SOX Automation, Inc.

The last annual NASPP conference 2006 in Las Vegas, was a great success with than 4,000 attendees. JD Higgenbothem, Director of Sox Compliance a Monolithic Power Systems Inc. with Susan Garvin, NASPP Executive Director, conducted an insightful seminar on SOX Compliance for FAS 123 (R) with Denise Vitale from UBS Financial Services, Inc. as a moderator. JD Higgenbothem and the speaker panels prepared extensive workflow documentation for members to share and are generously offering them as best practice referral materials to us.

At the end, JD emphasized the need to integrate Stock Option Plan Administration to SOX compliance process, control and test documentation, and strongly recommends participants to contact SOX Automation, Inc to review their in-depth and integrated and dynamic solutions.

California Board of Accountancy offers a free 8 hour forum on ethics and professional responsibility at October 23th 2006.

Keynote Speaker will be SEC Chairmann Christopher Cox.

There will be three different ways to attend this conference:

• Live Location in San Francisco (37,00 USD will be charged for a lunch box).
• Interactive Satellite Location: Long Beach (23,00 USD will be charged for a lunch box)
• Via interactive, Real Time Webcast (which is in deed free).

This time I am delighted to pronounce the new sponsor of this blog: SOX Automation, Inc. The company offered their expertise to take part at SOX-Center.com.

I accepted this grateful opportunity to strengthen the content of the blog, and I am looking forward to a productive cooperation.

About SOX Automation, Inc:

SOX Automation is a business solutions company focused on helping fast-growth public and private companies succeed and address critical business requirements related to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and internal control risk management.

SOX Automation´s applications enable you to manage the changing complexity of internal control management in a cost-effective and sustainable manner. Our service model supports growing enterprises that need a scalable internal audit solution that can be quickly implemented, easily deployed, and customized throughout the lifecycle of your organization.

We are uniquely positioned to optimize your investment in internal control and reporting software. Achieve better insight, gain greater control and discover a smarter path to financial compliance with SOX Automation.

All content, sponsored by SOX Automation, Inc will be marked as paid content.

The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, a newly formed independent group of U.S. business, financial, investor and corporate governance, legal, accounting and academic leaders, announced today that it will conduct a major study of how to improve the competitiveness of the U.S. public capital markets. It plans to issue a report with recommendations to key policy makers for specific changes in regulation and legislation by the end of November.

“I am pleased to learn The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, an independent group of highly-respected leaders in each of their fields, will examine the competitiveness of the U.S. public capital markets,” said Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. “This issue is important to the future of the American economy and a priority for me. I look forward to reviewing their findings and ideas.”

New Independent Non-Partisan Committee to Study Capital Markets Regulation and Make Recommendations to Key Policy Makers.