Spansion fails to pay Nasdaq fees
The Nasdaq stock market has found yet another reason why Spansion’s stock should be delisted, in addition to the facts that the company has filed for bankruptcy and is unable to file its annual 10-K financial report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Spansion has also failed to pay the necessary fees for continued listing, according to a press release it distributed via PRNewswire.
Good luck with that appeal, which the company says it plans to make.
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I got worried by that late breaking press release which I thought was
stupidly timed, so I went looking for The Facts
NASDAQ recently reorganized their listing rules, and this may be
causing confusion. Please correct me if any of this is wrong.
#1) Stock price & capitalization: NOT AN ISSUE The April 20th deadline
to meet NASDAQ minimum bid and market value requirements has been
extended to July 19th. SPSN is in the clear for minimum market value
and has time to bring the stock price up.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/5445267/NASDAQ-Completely-Reorganizes-Lis...
#2) Re: Delisting notice of April 17th: This is fees due in accordance
with NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 5210(d)) which states “The Company is
required to pay all applicable fees as described in the Rule 5900
Series”. How much is due? I believe the annual cap on fees is
$65,000?? This looks more like a sloppy oversight then anything else
and has hopefully been corrected already. Given all that SPSN has on
its plate, I’m not surprised that someone dropped the ball on an
annual fee- they’re certainly not going to risk their stock on a
listing fee. Regardless, even if this is not rectified SPSN will
remain listed for at least 30 to 45 days as they have initiated a
hearing on this matter.
#3) Earlier delisting notices regarding failure to comply with
periodic reports are not in effect as SPSN has filed interim reports
while they regain compliance. SPSN had 60 calendar days from March
10th to file an interim report and they submitted a notification of
late filing on March 13th. Regardless, NASDAQ rules even state A
company may remain listed while deficient in its filing obligations
for a maximum period of 360 days from the due date of the initial late
periodic report (as extended by Exchange Act Rule 12b-25)
For comparison with the recent delisting of SGIC, that company
received notice of insufficient capitalization on March 3rd (rule 4310
(c)(3), which requires the Company to have a minimum of $2,500,000 in
stockholders’ equity or $35,000,000 market value of listed securities
or $500,000 of net income from continuing operations for the most
recently completed fiscal year or two of the three most recently
completed fiscal years.) They could not rectify this deficiency and
were delisted a month after receiving notice (and not before their
stock was pumped and dumped from .08 to .90). SPSN obviously does not
have these issues and has not received any comparable warning.
I’m convinced the issues SPSN has related to any possible chance of
delisting appear minor and easily fixable- they just need to pay their
fee and file their 10-K. I think it’s safe to assume they’re on top of
this.