CompuServe Messages

I sometimes have to advise clients on how to deal with rumors. Unless it is an unusual situation, my standard advice is to make, and enforce, the following: "It is our policy to never comment on rumors." End of discussion. The reason is very straightforward: If you regularly squelch rumors, when the day comes that you must refuse to comment, you tend to send a signal that, this time, because you aren't denying it, the rumor is true. That may or may not be the case, but that's what the market, trained to expect denials, will read. If it's false, but you can't, for whatever reason, comment, you are hurt. If it's true, you may, by having set this pattern, confirm something prematurely that can hurt you as well, perhaps by giving the competition info they wouldn't otherwise have. Ray Lewis