In US securities law, the quiet period was historically a period between when a company filed a registration statement with the SEC and a number of days after the IPO. The term quiet period is not found anywhere in the law. In the summer of 2005, the SEC voted unanimously to modify its registration, communications, and offering processes, effectively ending the quiet period. The SEC now explicitly permits companies to continue publishing normal communications during the customary quiet period, subject to certain guidelines. The quiet period practice came under intense scrutiny in 2004 after a few noteworthy incidents. In one instance, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin granted an interview to Playboy magazine just prior to their firm’s IPO filing, days before the quiet period was to begin. The interview was published during the quiet period, immediately before the IPO. The SEC allowed the Google IPO to proceed on schedule despite the seeming violation of quiet period etiquette. The typical quiet period lasted up to 90 days after the IPO. |
