'Emulex Wire' Reborn in Nasdaq Deal

In making its agreement with Market Wire, the Nasdaq is bypassing two much bigger press release distributors: PR Newswire and Business Wire.

Market Wire executives say the company has changed a lot from the days of the Emulex incident. A Market Wire spokeswoman said the company has "grown up a lot" since then, and that the name change reflects the company's broader array of services and clientele.

In promotional literature available on its Web site, Market Wire points out that it is "the most secure, cost-effective distributor of company news and financial announcements."

Jim McGovern, Market Wire's chief executive, said mistakes have been made by all the major press release wire services, and that it's unfair for anyone to single out his company.

"If you're going to be fair, the truth of the matter is there have been lots of incidents of releases with erroneous information from all the players in the industry," said McGovern. "This is an industry problem we all have to deal with."

Still, the timing of name change is curious. It officially occurred on April 25, just days before the partnership with Nasdaq was announced. The company never announced the change; it just went overnight from being Internet Wire to Market Wire.

McGovern said the company is still working on a press release about the name change and the deal with the Nasdaq. He said the name change had been under consideration for several months.

There's nothing unusual about a company changing its name to try and cast a new image for itself. Heck, tobacco king Philip Morris recently did it by rebranding itself as Altria(MO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr). Even countries have tried it. The Asian nation of Burma changed its name a few years ago to Myanmar, after compiling a long record of human rights violations.

But it does seem as if the folks at Nasdaq and Market Wire want investors to forget Internet Wire ever existed, as they enter this new partnership.