by CIO Staff

Companies Struggle to Comply with Sarbanes-Oxley

News
Mar 17, 20051 min
Compliance

SEC filings with internal control attestations were due yesterday and, as expected, we are starting to hear stories of companies who are not compliant. First up, Eastman Kodak, which will restate 2003 and 2004 results, has applied for a 15 day extension, and will receive an adverse opinion on its internal controls from its auditor (links are to the subscription-only Wall Street Journal—sorry). In the hour or so since the market opened, Eastman Kodak stock is down less than one percent, so it looks like the market isn’t overreacting.

EDS, Cray, Jefferies Group, New Horizons Worldwide, and Veritas Software all requested 15 day extensions to give auditors more time to evaluate their internal controls. Presumably they will receive adverse opinions as well.

Oh, and MCI—the new name for the post-scandal WorldCom—said that it found material weaknesses in its internal controls. They’ve had plenty of time to fix it, but coming so soon after the Ebbers conviction it’s hard to be too surprised by this news.