TechGC,

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission state:

Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure) is a new issuer disclosure rule that addresses selective disclosure. The regulation provides that when an issuer, or person acting on its behalf, discloses material nonpublic information to certain enumerated persons (in general, securities market professionals and holders of the issuer's securities who may well trade on the basis of the information), it must make public disclosure of that information. The timing of the required public disclosure depends on whether the selective disclosure was intentional or non-intentional; for an intentional selective disclosure, the issuer must make public disclosure simultaneously; for a non-intentional disclosure, the issuer must make public disclosure promptly. Under the regulation, the required public disclosure may be made by filing or furnishing a Form 8-K, or by another method or combination of methods that is reasonably designed to effect broad, non-exclusionary distribution of the information to the public.

I assume your question is how long can they sit on it before making it public...I'm not sure of a set timeframe for this or if there is one. I imagine it could delay (briefly) as long as the information is kept quiet and nobody acts on the information internally after it is known. Though you would think material information wouldn't be kept under wraps for long.

The link to this page which has much more detail and is worth reading if you interested in the finer details is: http://www.sec.gov/rules/final/33-7881.htm