Financial Roundup
Up-to-date stock quotes now just phone call away
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - by Dennis Taylor Business Journal Staff Writer
Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. and Nuance Communications Inc. have put a new twist on monitoring the ticker tape.
Menlo Park-based Nuance has developed a technology that uses electronic speech recognition and sold it to Schwab, which provides stock, mutual fund and market information to callers.
Nuance spun off from SRI International in 1994.
The technology allows callers to speak in conversational English to obtain information and make transactions, including trades on the three major exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.
"It coexists with the Internet," said Tom Taggart, a spokesman for San Francisco-based Schwab. "Not everyone has access to their PC. If you are stuck on Highway 85 watching the license plate in front of you, you can pick up stock quotes over the phone."
The system currently offers quotes, but Mr. Taggart said transactions will be available "just down the road."
Schwab customers can create personal lists so customers can receive multiple quotes automatically.
Schwab, which became a discount broker in 1975 when the Securities and Exchange Commission eased regulations on commissions, pays its brokers salaries and does not employ research analysts to keep costs down.
"Our customers are the self-directed investors who appreciate technology," Mr. Taggart said.
Discount brokerages are becoming increasingly competitive with Internet service. E-Trade Group Inc. in Palo Alto conducts all of its business over the Net.
CPA named to top post
Debra Shaw, a CPA heading up West Valley Group's Accountants Now staffing company, has been elected to a two-year term as president of the San Jose Chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants.
Ms. Shaw has also been named to the NABA board of directors in Washington.
"The San Jose chapter represents Silicon Valley," Ms. Shaw said. "And we hope over the coming months to build alliances with the major corporations in the valley."
Ms. Shaw, who has 16 years' experience with the Big Six international firms and national accounting companies, previously operated her own business, Beverly Hills-based Shaw and Associates.
She helped establish Accountants Now in 1995 as a finance and accounting staffing service operated entirely by CPAs.
NABA, established in 1969, has 48 chapters and 90 student chapters. It provides resources to advance the professional growth of African-Americans and other minorities.
AMD, SEC settle
Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the Sunnyvale semiconductor maker, has hammered out an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission settling an investigation of the public disclosures made by the company in 1992 and 1993.
AMD spokesman John Greenagle said the SEC accused his company of making misleading statements about its efforts to create an independently engineered version of the microcode for the Am486 microprocessor.
Intel held a copyright on the code.
The SEC charged that AMD's annual report statements misled investors into believing the company independently engineered the microcode.
Latest News |
Most Viewed Stories |
Most Emailed Stories |
