Earlier this week, I reported finding content in PPL’s 10-K that was present in the filing’s HTML but not visible when the filing was rendered in a browser. After confirming that the problem was not caused by directEDGAR’s parsing engine, I searched our archive for the same pattern.
The search identified 19 filing documents, representing 16 distinct disclosure instances. The difference between 16 versus 19 arises because one instance involved parallel filings by PPL and three subsidiaries with separate reporting obligations..
In six of the 19 filing documents, the hidden material was either repeated elsewhere in the filing or unnecessary to the document in which it appeared. LivePerson’s amended 10-K provides an interesting example. The amendment was filed to provide the Part III information required by Items 10 through 14. However, its source HTML also contained hidden copies of nearly all the financial statement notes, beginning with the second paragraph of the notes in the original 10-K. That material was unnecessary to the amendment and had already been reported in the original filing.
The hidden material can be inspected through EDGAR by opening the filing as HTML and then viewing the page source. The styling applied to the relevant HTML container prevents the content from appearing in the normally rendered page. I have it displayed below. This view represents the filing before I removed the hidden material from directEDGAR’s processed copy.
For the six filings containing duplicative or unnecessary material, I removed that material from directEDGAR’s processed display and searchable copy. In the remaining 13 filing documents, the hidden material appeared potentially relevant. Therefore, I adjusted directEDGAR’s processed HTML so that the material would be visible and searchable. I applied a deliberately broad standard: if the material could reasonably have appeared in the filing, I preserved it.
GoPro’s 10-K, for example, contains a hidden Rule 10b5-1 trading-arrangement disclosure. The disclosure is nearly identical to one included in GoPro’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, available here. The principal difference is that the final sentence in the 10-Q refers to the third quarter, while the hidden 10-K text refers to the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2025. Frankly, because the disclosure substantially duplicates the Form 10-Q disclosure, I could reasonably have treated it as duplicative. However, because the final sentence refers to the fourth quarter, I retained the material to be safe. It is now visible and fully searchable.

The metadata for all the affected filings identifies the Workiva platform. The available evidence suggests that the hidden material may have remained in the HTML from an editing or review stage. Some of the hidden content, such as the material from Consensus Cloud Solutions shown below, even retained yellow-background formatting that appears consistent with editing or review markup. This is suggestive, although it does not establish precisely how the material came to remain in the filed HTML.

In summary, when the hidden material was duplicative or unnecessary, I excluded it from directEDGAR’s processed version. When it appeared potentially relevant, I made it visible and searchable. I did not attempt to move any disclosure to another location in the filing because doing so would require guessing where the registrant intended it to appear. That would introduce more judgment than I am comfortable applying.
I need to run a scan across prior years as well as other filings to see if this has occurred elsewhere. I probably will not report the results of that scan unless there is a significant finding. The issue was interesting, but I do not think any of the disclosures were necessarily significant. My overall sense was that the disclosures that were not visible were unlikely to affect a reader’s interpretation of the filings.

















