<SPECIAL FEATURE>
January 26, 1999
Investors' Rights
Ratings 3.5 - 1
In a wholly unscientific manner, Yi-Hsin Chang and Louis Corrigan each picked 10 well-known companies from a wide range of industries. Efforts were made to contact every company's investor relations (IR) department to ask about policies regarding conference calls, website offerings, and earnings press releases. Conference calls were rated on two criteria -- their availability to individual shareowners and whether a live broadcast was available on the Internet. Earnings announcements were rated on clarity, detail, and depth. The companies' IR websites were navigated to determine usefulness to shareowners. Each company was rated on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest rating possible.
Next -- What You Can Do - Send a Letter
3Dfx Interactive Inc. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: TDFX)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: TDFX)") end if %>
4435 Fortran Drive
San Jose, CA 95134
(408) 935-4400
http://www.3dfx.com/corp/investor.html
Rating: 3
Foolish Efforts: 3Dfx farms out much of its online IR efforts by linking to the Nasdaq-Amex website for information regarding its stock price activity, fundamentals, financial background, forecasted and actual earnings, and analysts' recommendations. You can also make a request for the latest quarterly or annual report right online. Company executives, including CEO Greg Ballard, monitor various online message boards and have been known to respond to major concerns or questions.
Areas for Improvement: Like the entire IR area, the "Investor FAQ" page leaves much to be desired. The company should provide online or downloadable versions of past annual and quarterly earnings reports, plus an archive of press releases. It should also include individual investors among its circle of "significant shareholders" invited to take part in its quarterly conference calls. This would probably be best handled if 3Dfx were to broadcast the calls online. At the very least, 3Dfx should publicize the conference call replay number, currently available only if you're in the know or upon request.