📅 On This Day
A Facebook Post Rewrites the Rules of Corporate Disclosure
On July 3, 2012, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced on his personal Facebook page that monthly viewing had surpassed one billion hours — with no press release or SEC filing attached. The stock climbed from around $70 to above $80 in the days that followed, and the SEC took notice. Rather than prosecute, regulators issued a landmark 2013 report declaring that social media could serve as a valid channel for material disclosures — provided companies tell investors in advance which platforms they intend to use.
One casual Facebook post forced the SEC to reconcile 20th-century disclosure rules with a social-media world.
NFLX — Netflix CDR (CAD Hedged)
🇺🇸 US
Source: SEC Report of Investigation (Release 34-69279, April 2, 2013); JD Supra
📅 On This Day
A Facebook Post Rewrites the Rules of Corporate Disclosure
On July 3, 2012, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced on his personal Facebook page that monthly viewing had surpassed one billion hours — with no press release or SEC filing attached. The stock climbed from around $70 to above $80 in the days that followed, and the SEC took notice. Rather than prosecute, regulators issued a landmark 2013 report declaring that social media could serve as a valid channel for material disclosures — provided companies tell investors in advance which platforms they intend to use.
One casual Facebook post forced the SEC to reconcile 20th-century disclosure rules with a social-media world.
NFLX — Netflix Inc
🇺🇸 US
Source: SEC Report of Investigation (Release 34-69279, April 2, 2013); JD Supra
🌍 Around the World
China's Dividend Tax Hides Behind Hong Kong's Zero-Rate Reputation
Hong Kong levies no dividend withholding tax of its own, yet that headline figure can mislead. Most Chinese companies trading on the HKEX are H-shares — mainland enterprises listed abroad — and the PRC government withholds 10% at source before any cash crosses the border. Investors accessing mainland A-shares through Stock Connect face the same flat 10% PRC withholding, making the listing venue a poor guide to the actual tax burden; the company's domicile and share class are what truly matter.
Red Chip structures can escape PRC withholding — but some voluntarily apply 10% anyway, so always check the fine print.
🇨🇳 CN
Source: PwC China withholding tax summary; HKEX Stock Connect investor guide
🔥 Dividend Streak
Kimberly-Clark Turns Wartime Bandages Into 53 Years of Dividend Growth
Few origin stories rival Kimberly-Clark's: during World War I, the company produced Cellucotton — a wood-pulp material five times as absorbent as cotton — for military bandages and gas-mask filters. When the war ended, surplus Cellucotton inspired Kotex in 1920 and Kleenex in 1924, two names so dominant they became synonymous with entire product categories. Since 1973, the company has raised its dividend every single year, turning a battlefield innovation into a remarkably durable income story.
A wartime pivot to consumer staples has quietly powered one of the market's most consistent dividend growth records.
KMB — Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Source: Smithsonian Magazine; Snopes; streak active as of 2025
💡 Did You Know
Whalers Earned Equity Shares, Not Wages — Even Herman Melville Haggled
Long before stock options, whaling ships ran on a pure profit-share model called the "lay." Every crew member, from captain to cabin boy, received a fractional claim on the voyage's net proceeds — a captain might hold 1/8th, while a green hand could earn as little as 1/350th. Herman Melville signed onto the Acushnet in 1841 for a 1/175 lay, and in Moby-Dick, Ishmael famously negotiates upward from 1/777 to 1/300 — though many sailors still came home in debt after onboard charges were deducted.
Aligning crew and owner incentives sounds elegant — until the tobacco tab wipes out your share of the catch.
🇺🇸 US
Source: New Bedford Whaling Museum; Nantucket Historical Association; Slices of Blue Sky