New York, June 22: Material corporate information -- loosely defined by regulators as market-moving disclosures -- is like beauty: it lies in the eye of the beholder. For General Electric Co, material information does not include the sales orders for a number of key industries such as plastics and appliances.
Instead of putting out a press release, the Fairfield, Connecticut conglomerate quietly posts the percentage changes in monthly orders on its investor information Web site without any prior flagging.
"This does not rise to the level of material information," said David Frail, a company spokesman.

However, Wall Street analysts seem to think otherwise. After GE released its monthly orders numbers this week, at least seven brokerages lowered their earnings estimates, and the company's stock fell nearly 3 per cent on Thursday.
"That is their decision to make," Frail said. "We don't comment inappropriately on their models or their conclusions about the earnings effects of any of the information we provide."
Bureau Report