Biz journalist: Let us attend IPO road show meetings

Dan Primack of Fortune argues that business journalists should be allowed to attend a company’s road show meetings with potential investors in its initial public offering.

Primack writes, “To be clear, I’m not accusing Twitter or any other company of surreptitiously breaking the rules. I’m accusing them all of participating in business-as-usual, which is de facto breaking the rules.

“My solution: Let reporters attend the roadshow meetings.

“If a company isn’t saying anything it should be, then what exactly is the harm? The benefit would be twofold: (1) Ensure that such shadiness is not occurring, and (b) Expanding the reach of the company’s message, including to investors who weren’t lucky enough (or in the right city) to get a chicken and tea invite.

“If you don’t want to let reporters ask questions, fine. Just like most companies prevent them from doing so during quarterly earnings calls. But you’d never see a publicly-traded company prevent reporters from listening to such calls. You know, because it’s publicly-traded. Since that’s the same intent here, it seems that banning media is a needlessly secretive vestige of a company that isn’t entirely prepared to enter the public realm.

“So let us in. Not because it helps us out. But because it’s the right thing to do by your future investors. All of them, not just the chosen few.”

Read more here.