Next, the company should have put a communications plan in place at every level--from the customer service reps to the chief executive--to make sure everyone stuck to the same message.
"The difficult securities market environment that emerged late last year continued into early 2001, and our clients' daily average revenue trades declined to their lowest level since the fourth quarter of 1999, " co-Chief Executive Charles Schwab said in a statement.
The stock is currently at its lowest level in more than five years despite efforts by co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang to revitalize the company.
Ferguson had also claimed that United chief executive David Gill and Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein had agreed at boardroom level not to discuss the incident in public.