I guess it's nice that when someone screws up like this, the company is forced to admit it openly. A reader tipped us to an 8-K filed by MetLife today.
Shortly after 5:30 PM (Eastern time) on April 18, 2012, MetLife, Inc. (“MetLife”) furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on Form 8-K revised historical financial results (the “Historical Results Financial Supplement”) which revised the information contained in its quarterly financial supplements for each quarter of 2011. The Historical Results Financial Supplement was made available in advance of MetLife’s planned earnings announcement for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 to aid investors in understanding the impact of MetLife’s reorganization of its business into six segments, reflecting three broad geographic regions, and the adoption and retrospective application of new guidance regarding accounting for deferred acquisition costs, both of which occurred during the first quarter of 2012. Shortly after the Form 8-K was furnished, the Historical Results Financial Supplement was also posted on the Investor Relations section of MetLife’s website. On April 19, 2012, MetLife learned that the data in the version of the Historical Results Financial Supplement posted on its website could be accessed in ways to make visible the preliminary financial results of MetLife for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 which were otherwise embedded in the document but were not visible.
Therefore, MetLife has attached a new Historical Results Financial Supplement, which includes MetLife’s preliminary financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2012, to this Form 8-K as Exhibit 99.1. In light of the preliminary nature of these financial results, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on them. Due to the inadvertent early release of this information, MetLife will provide final financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 on April 26, 2012, after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
