Friday, April 17, 2009

Governance lessons learned from SEC v. Con-way, Inc.


Summary

On August 27, 2008 the SEC entered a Cease and Desist Order ("Order") against Con-way, Inc. ("Con-way") (Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Release No. 58433). Con-way consented to the entry of the Order without admitting or denying the findings, except as to the SEC’s jurisdiction over it and the subject matter of the proceedings. The findings, although not admitted and rather sparse on detail, nevertheless provide insight, lessons and missed opportunities. This discussion is organized in the following order: Summary; Comments, Lessons Learned and Missed Opportunities; and Details of the Cease and Desist Order.

In pertinent part, the Order alleges that Con-way is a public company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Menlo Worldwide Forwarding, Inc. was a wholly-owned U.S-based subsidiary of Con-way that Con-way purchased in 1989. During the relevant period, Menlo Forwarding had a 55% voting interest in Emery Transnational ("Emery").

See full Article.