The first week of August will offer an interesting “compare and contrast” exercise as SDL announces its second-quarter financial results on the 4th, followed by Lionbridge’s earnings report and conference call on August 5th.

One of the differences that we can observe in advance is regulatory — SDL has already disclosed highlights of the quarter’s results, while Lionbridge’s numbers are embargoed until the date of release. In the rather more corporate-friendly U.K. trading environment, SDL’s Chairman Mark Lancaster will be able to announce the subset of financial data most pleasing to his ears. Across the pond in the investor-friendly U.S., Lionbridge CEO Rory Cowan will have to disclose full income statement and balance sheet data and then submit himself to grilling by the analysts who cover the stock.

Of course, Lionbridge will have more than just the regulatory climate to make it green-eyed with envy. SDL’s pre-announcement (its “trading update“) promises a 37 percent increase in revenue, two thirds of which is the result of organic growth with the balance from acquisitions. Profits will likewise be up by 32 percent. The lag between profit and revenue growth may be explained in part by the acquisition of loss-making Idiom Technologies, which the update promises will be brought to break-even in the course of the year.

Good news of any sort would be a surprise for Lionbridge. Analysts surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expect earnings of US$0.00 per share — this was also their expectation for the first quarter, when the company in fact lost US$0.08 per share. The share prices on any given day are the result of many factors that fall outside a company’s realm of control, including animal spirits and the gnomes of Zurich. Still, the decline of LIOX shares to an intra-day low of US$1.87 last Tuesday cannot be mistaken for a sign of investor confidence. That price shock prompted many calls to us (curiosity, concern, Schadenfreude?), which prompted us to take a renewed look at Lionbridge’s operations — stay tuned for more on this topic in the coming weeks. No matter what results Lionbridge announces in August, they will be noted by fewer observers than in the past, since the widely-tracked Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks was reconstituted on June 27 — without Lionbridge.