Yeah, I see that all the time, too...
Companies that don't predict time lines don't create benchmarks against which they can be judged... and that tends to make things take longer. I'd rather have the predictions and miss them, because that applies pressure... than have none and accept drift as OK.
Unless all the factors are under your control, and you can lay them out on a project plan as you might in building a house or taking on some other engineering task, it is hard, as I just posted, even for those who KNOW to predict WHEN...
And then DOUBLE that if there are lawyers involved...
The only way you really overcome that is to find a way to have more control than you do... or exercise greater discipline in the news announced.
If you want to get straight A's in school, the easiest way to do it is to study ahead... study the course materials NOW for the courses you will take next quarter... and then, next quarter, when others are learning for the first time, all you are doing is filling in holes and figuring out the parts you didn't get the first time... while getting a refresher on a second reading of the rest. Requires more discipline than most people have...
Same with companies. Most of those whose reports and predictions of accomplishments tend to be spot on all the time... have found the leeway to structure in reporting delays... to use accounting tricks to make the next quarter pre-wired as it is really reporting out this one with a delay, so before you are working on "creating" the results, you already know them and are working on the next set... Easier in some businesses than others. News announcing you are set to begin drilling your first oil well after the first and second are done... and your prediction risks can be reduced quite a lot...
For gaining any "real" insight, it helps a lot to know how the company management treats news... big difference between those managements that always live in the moment and talk about it off the cuff, and those that use news as well timed propaganda to condition the market with "news" announcing things that the insiders already fully know. Changes in how news is developed, understood, and how its use is approached by a company are also key indicators to watch... as any shifts will likely condition future opportunity.
Lots of ways that the "reality" of what is being done can be prevented from intruding... Say a deal is being done... but it isn't "really" done until the very last paper is signed. If there is utility in controlling the timing... and no real risk the deal won't be done if it isn't signed right away and announced, the signing of the very last paper can be delayed without any impact on the real business... just to enable control of timing... and it is quite possible to have the deal not only done in fact, but completed in reality, without that last paper having been signed yet...
Not saying that is the case here... I'm just saying...
There are often reasons, that relate to gaining competitive advantages in the real conduct of business, why you'd want to delay announcing and "accomplishing" the meat of any news item, while actually going about the "accomplishing" of it...
I don't know that enabling delays in announcements implies any real delays in the conduct of the business... but it might... or it might not... and we just won't know until the whole picture comes together AND is made plain...
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