MarketWatch.com commentator (and founder) Calandra resigns

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MarketWatch.com commentator Calandra resigns
Internal probe sparked by SEC request for records
By CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:43 PM ET Jan. 22, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Thom Calandra, chief commentator for CBS MarketWatch and one of the founders of its parent company, resigned Thursday amid an internal probe into his trading activities that was sparked by a query from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Calandra, 47, who for the last nine months was the author of a subscription newsletter, The Calandra Report, said in a letter to the company that he was resigning immediately.

According to the company, Calandra told MarketWatch.com executives in late December that he received a letter from the San Francisco office of the SEC. The agency asked for records of his personal stock trades, copies of his newsletter and copies of the e-mail alerts he occasionally sent to his subscribers. MarketWatch.com (MKTW: news, chart, profile) launched an internal investigation the following day.

The SEC has in the past probed records of newsletter editors to determine whether they improperly profited from trading stock in companies they wrote about.

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