From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 08:40:07 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Israel crypto restrictions
In-Reply-To: <199611281409.JAA21283@homeport.org>
Message-ID: <3J24XD17w165w@bwalk.dm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org> writes:
> Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote:
> | Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org> writes:
> | > 	They're listed on NASDAQ (CKP).  This makes them an American
> | > company for purposes of export controls.  (This from an employee of
> | > Checkpoint who I asked that exact question.)
> |
> | This is truly bizarre. First, if they were on the NASDAQ, they'd have a
> | 4-letter ticker symbol, not a 3-letter symbol. MSFT (Microsoft) is on NASDA
> | IBM (IBM) and F (Ford) are on the New York stock exchange and/or
> | American stock exchange.
>
> 	Oops.  Misread my stock service.  I usually pay little
> attention to what exchange something is traded on.  CKP is on the
> NYSE.

The exchange is of little relevance to most small investors. It matters, e.g.,
if you're trying to figure out your transaction costs. If you buy or sell an
exchange-listed stock, then there's the stock price (money going to the shares'
old owner or coming from the new owner) and a separate commission going to your
broker (3c/share if you're smart). With NASDAQ stocks, you buy them at ask
price and sell them at bid price. The spread between the two prices is the
broker's source of revenue. You can't tell how much of the money you paid went
for the shares and how much to the broker. For the same reason the volume
figures in most sources have to be divided by 2 for NASDAQ issues to be
comparable with exchange-listed issues.

Anyway it's irrelevant in this case.

> | Sometimes the stock of a foreign company is traded in the U.S. in the form
> | of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) not sponsored by the company. How
> | could that impose any obligation on it?
>
> 	"He asks, as if the ITARs were logical."

Fuck ITAR, fuck being (un)sponsored, consider the SEC disclosure requirements.
In the U.S., a publicly traded company has to file reports with the SEC and
make them publicly available. There's the big annual report (10K etc) at the
end of the fiscal year, and little quarterly reports (10Q etc). Other countries
have different requrements. E.g. in Japan they only have the annual report and
the semiannual (QII) one - not for QI and QIII. Sony's ADRs (SNY) are traded in
the U.S. pretty actively, but neither Sony nor any other Japanese company I
know of issues QI or QIII reports.

---

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps