It has been argued that in the U.S. a preannouncement of earnings during a quarter does not need to be furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on a Form 8-K, but that a preannouncement after the quarter ends must be [REF].
It has been suggested [REF] that potential litigation costs are one reason for announcing bad news early - the company may be at risk of being sued for having known the bad information, not having revealed it, and causing a loss to those who bought stock after the company knew.