| Type | wholly owned subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | 44 Montgomery San Francisco |
| Parent | Berkshire Hathaway |
Business Wire is a company that disseminates full-text news releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases and other audiences. The company distributes news via its own patented electronic network, NX, developed by its in-house tech team using XML/NewsML. It also has carriage agreements with major news agencies, including the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Reuters, Thomson One, and some 60 regional news agencies to deliver content directly into their newsroom editorial systems. It was the first service of its type to put its clients' news online, launching the company's website in May 1995.
Business Wire provides direct news feeds along with photo posting to Yahoo! Finance and other information web sites. It offers preset and fully customized RSS news feeds upon registration (which is free). In 2007, the company added social media networking "tags" to news releases for services including Digg, del.icio.us, Newsvine and Reddit. The company's EON: Enhanced Online News service provides a platform for news announcements utilizing a variety of Web 2.0 technologies, with search engine optimization features, social media tags to encourage online sharing of news, and interactive multimedia.
Working with stock markets and regulatory authorities, Business Wire is an authorized disclosure vehicle in the US and Canada (with news networks, EDGAR filings and SEDAR filings), the UK (with Financial Securities Authority-sanctioned (FSA) services), France (with Autorité des Marchés Financiers-sanctioned (AMF) services) and other European markets including Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. In 2007, Business Wire established a pan-European disclosure service designed around the European Union's Transparency Obligations Directive (TOD) requirements. In addition to fulfilling financial disclosure requirements, this posts full-text news releases directly into major professional and individual investor systems. Journalists can set up personal web, RSS and email news feeds based on their specific beat criteria.
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Business Wire was founded on October 2, 1961 by Lorry I. Lokey. Cathy Baron Tamraz became CEO and president on December 16, 2005.
On January 17, 2006, Berkshire Hathaway announced that it was purchasing Business Wire for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition was completed on March 1, 2006.[1]
On September 15, 2005 Business Wire established Regulatory Disclosure networks in France, Sweden, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The move came in anticipation of the anticipated implementation of the European Union's Transparency Obligations Directive (TOD). On June 1, 2005 Business Wire entered the German Ad-Hoc market with a disclosure network for companies with primary or secondary listings on the Deutsche Boerse. The service was established in compliance with BaFin, Germany's national securities regulator.
On January 10, 2005 Business Wire established an Asian hub with the opening of its Tokyo bureau, and later that year added Japanese, making the site available in seven languages On September 27, 2006, Business Wire and Vocus, Inc. (NASDAQ:VOCS) announced the two companies had entered into a strategic partnership in which Business Wire would use a private label version of Vocus’ PRWeb press release distribution platform to provide a new search engine optimized (SEO) and social media distribution service. The platform is called EON:Enhanced Online News.
On April 24, 2007 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent to Business Wire for its Internet-based news distribution platform, known as 'Business Wire NX'. The United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded 'NX' Patent N. 7069244 for its 'simultaneous network news distribution' capabilities.
On January 1, 2007 Autorité des marchés financiers, the French Financial Markets Regulator, approved Business Wire to operate as a Regulatory Disclosure Service in France. On December 14, 2007 it was announced that Business Wire had named Phyllis Dantuono and Greg Castano to be co-chief operating officers.
On November 1, 2005 the SEC filed suit against an Estonian trading firm, Lohmus Haavel & Viisemann (Lohmus) for illicit trading conducted as a result of financial information garnered by accessing more than 360 press releases on behalf of over 200 public companies from the Business Wire website,[2] The releases were accessed via Business Wire's website during the 10 month period between January and November, 2005. Business Wire Chairman, Lorry Lokey issued a statement that no releases had been accessed prior to distribution, although employees of the Estonian firm, Oliver Peek and Kristjan Lepik had gathered $7.8 million in illegal profits during that time.[3] In August 2006, Lepik consented to a final judgment, which included payments of $551,958 representing his share of illegal profits, along with interest of $10,181 and a civil penalty of $15,000.[4]