There are a lot of laws and regulations around advertising stock for sale to the general public (as opposed to qualified private investors). Companies have to

There are a lot of laws and regulations around advertising stock for sale to the general public (as opposed to qualified private investors). Companies have to be very conservative but thorough in the "Risk Factors" section, or get sued by investors claiming to have been misled later. For example some of Google's Risk Factors from 2004: > New technologies could block our ads, which would harm our business. > We generate our revenue almost entirely from advertising, and the reduction in spending by or loss of advertisers could seriously harm our business. > We are susceptible to index spammers who could harm the integrity of our web search results.