Investopedia: Some Good News Is Bad News For Investors

Context and presentation often matter more than substance, at least in the short term. Many public companies have elevated this notion to a perverse art form - announcing news that is actually quite bad for shareholders, but spinning it in a way that makes it sounds as though shareholders should be grateful to have such far-sighted leadership. Being able to separate the real good news from puffery and double-talk is a valuable skill, and investors should be on the lookout for some of these examples of good news that really is not good news. (For more, check out Can Good News Be A Signal To Sell?)

Restructuring
Given the end of the Great Recession and the recovery in the economy, it seems more likely that companies will be in a mood to hire and expand rather than restructure and retrench. Eventually, though, there will be another wave of corporate restructuring among public companies. Though analysts and institutions often cheer these moves, savvy investors should be skeptical.

Sometimes restructuring makes all the sense in the world; particularly when a company hires a new management team to improve or turn around a business that has been lagging and underperforming. But what about cases where the management team doing the firing is the same team that did the hiring? Barring a public mea culpa (and perhaps the surrender of some bonuses or salary), why should an investor trust a CEO who is basically saying "I confess … they did it!"


Please go to the full piece through this link:
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/11/interpreting-investor-news.asp