March 16 may not be such a nightmare after all. That’s the date when the nation’s biggest companies have to complete an audit of their internal controls � yet another chore courtesy of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Businesses have to disclose their findings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Companies feared that if they have problems to report, they will be punished by stockholders, bond rating agencies and plaintiffs lawyers.
A funny thing happened on the way to doomsday, though. Many companies decided to report their problems early, rather than wait for this spring’s deadline. And so far, the reaction to the bulk of these disclosures has been decidedly ho-hum.
