Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, is a company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, social networks and other audiences.
Business Wire was founded in 1961, by Lorry I. Lokey.
It launched the company's website in May 1995. In 2000, Business Wire was the first commercial newswire to end the practice of distributing news to financial outlets 15-minutes before anyone else, to provide immediate, equal access to company information as noted by Reg FD.
Business Wire's first wholly owned European operation launched in 2001, with the opening of an office in London. On June 1, 2005, Business Wire entered the German Ad-Hoc market with a disclosure network for companies with primary or secondary listings on the Deutsche Boerse. The service was established in compliance with BaFin, Germany's national securities regulator. On September 15, 2005, Business Wire established Regulatory Disclosure networks in France, Sweden, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The move came in anticipation of the anticipated implementation of the EU's Transparency Obligations Directive (TOD). On January 1, 2007, Autorité des marchés financiers, the French Financial Markets Regulator, approved Business Wire to operate as a Regulatory Disclosure Service in France.