SiliconBeat

Nasdaq’s patience with Maxim Integrated Products finally wore out Monday when it told the Sunnyvale maker of analog chips that its stock would be delisted, starting today.

Instead, Maxim shares can now be found in the, um, illustrious Pink Sheet (new symbol: MXIM.PK), commonly regarded as home of more fly-by-night operations than Maxim, which ranks as the 35th on the Mercury News SV150 listing of the biggest public companies in Silicon Valley.

There was a hint of the move earlier in the day, when Nasdaq said that it was removing Maxim off of its Nasdaq 100 index, replaced by Henry Schein, a company that sells flu vaccine, Maxim shares fell $1.09, or 3.7 percent. After the markets closed, Maxim put out a press release telling of its delisting.

Maxim has not filed financial reports with the SEC since May 2006, shortly after reports of stock option backdating started exploding in the financial press. In February the company said that its own internal investigation concluded that stock option grants to employees and directors had been mishandled from 2000 to as late as 2006, and that it would need to restate previous results.

At that time the company also said that “in connection with its investigation” former Chief Executive John Gifford would step down as a special adviser, as would Carl Jasper, Maxim’s chief financial officer since 1998.

The Nasdaq had repeatedly postponed delisting of Maxim’s shares in order to give the company more time to bring its financial filings with the SEC up to date. In a list of “non-compliant companies” as of Oct. 1, Nasdaq cited Maxim for seven “deficiencies”, including delinquent reports for three quarters, two missing annual reports, a late proxy filing and failure to hold its annual shareholder meeting.

That was the highest number for any of the other companies cited on the list. Maxim was not the only Silicon Valley company to make the list, and if seven seems to be the “lucky” number where the Nasdaq finally throws its hands up, we may soon see some other locals lose their listing.

Three valley companies currently have five deficiencies each: Actel, BEA Systems and Rambus; while five local companies have four each: Bell Microproducts, Coherent, Electronics for Imaging, Finisar and Selectica.

Maxim says it expects its restatement to be completed and its past due reports to be filed during the first quarter of 2008, when it will seek re-listing in the Nasdaq.

If one day’s over-the-counter stock movement means anything, then Maxim will be just fine. It’s stock price rose 26 cents or 1 percent Tuesday, as more than 33 million of its shares traded hands. That was down from 47 million on Monday, but still five times higher than the average volume over the last year.