What you do is usually more important than when you announced it

Before

In October 2012, we announced that we had reached settlements with several bank regulators to resolve reviews of certain aspects of our U.S. consumer card practices for compliance with certain consumer protection laws and regulations.

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The company announced in September 2011 that the Board of Directors had approved an additional USD 1,500,000,000 authorization under the company’s share repurchase program which may be used by the company to repurchase shares up to the authorized amount in future periods.

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In 2014 our executive officers successfully continued to implement a strategic transformation of our business model. . . . We announced that we are discontinuing licensing upgrades after 2014 and, in October 2014, we announced that we plan to discontinue new perpetual offerings over the next 12 to 24 months.

Commentary

In each of these instances, the important information is what the company is doing (or did), not when the company announced its actions.

After

In October 2012, we reached settlements with several bank regulators to resolve reviews of certain aspects of our U.S. consumer card practices for compliance with certain consumer protection laws and regulations.

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In September 2011, the Board of Directors approved an additional USD 1,500,000,000 authorization under the company’s share repurchase program, which may be used by the company to repurchase shares up to the authorized amount in future periods.

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In 2014 our executive officers successfully continued to implement a strategic transformation of our business model. . . . Effective at the close of 2014, we no longer offer license upgrades.  In addition, we plan to discontinue new perpetual offerings by October 2016.