BREAKING NEWS: Nothing Happened

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There actually is good reason for a company to do this. Still, I thought that the wording was extremely funny.

Someone on the Motley Fool Discussion Boards made me aware of a press release that Wellco (AMEX: WLC), a Waynesville, North Carolina footwear company put out in late February. I'll try not to spoil the ending, but here's the title:

Wellco Enterprises Inc. Announces "No News"

The text of the press release then confirms that the title isn't just some attempt at irony. There's no pony in there somewhere. Nothing of note has happened at Wellco.

This might strike you as a particularly absurd way of generating publicity for a company. It sort of struck me like one of those announcements "The Tick" used to make when he was doing something mundane. "I'm doing the laundry!!!"

But the answer to this is something a bit more prosaic than a company's media folks having lost their minds. Wellco's stock price had, in the course of a week, risen by more than 65%. When something like this takes place, many investors assume that someone "knows something," and is accordingly buying heavily. Wellco's response to the inevitable rumors was this release. And in the age of Regulation Fair Disclosure -- when companies can get into a heapload of trouble should they be found to be releasing information in an unfair manner -- this is actually an extremely prudent thing to do.

Still, the headline reminds me of one of those joke plaques you see: "On this site in 1871, nothing happened." It certainly is nice to see a company that can back up a catchy headline with some good, solid facts, don't you think? Certainly, there's not much that's being left unsaid in this case.

Bill Mann took the Chevy to the levy, but he doesn't recall whether it was dry or not. He holds no shares of any company mentioned in this article. He also is pretty sure that Franco is still dead.