NEC could lose Nasdaq listing
By Colleen Taylor -- EDN, March 8, 2007
NEC Corp. may be about to lose its listing on the Nasdaq stock market on April 2 because of long overdue filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
NEC's forms have been held up by an internal investigation of its historical stock options granting practices spurred by the recent industry-wide crack down on illegal stock options backdating. In January, the Japan-based company announced that a Nasdaq listing qualifications panel had given NEC a pass for its shares to continue to be listed on the market despite its late Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006 as long as the company filed it to the SEC by February 28.
The company got another break from the market's listing qualifications panel on February 22, when its shares had once again been granted continued listing on the Nasdaq as long as NEC filed its delayed form by an extended April 2 deadline on the condition that NEC file with the SEC on or before April 2.
But despite the repeat deadline extensions, a third time may not be a charm for NEC. This week the company announced that although it is "currently undertaking to complete the analysis necessary to prepare the financial statements" for filing the delayed form, it is "unlikely" that it will meet the April 2 deadline and it has requested yet another pass from the Nasdaq.
"At this time, NEC cannot guarantee that its American depositary receipts will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq global select market after April 2," the company said in a statement.
Although several companies including Atmel Corp., Broadcom Corp. and Brooks Automation. have received passes in recent months for their shares to continue to trade on Nasdaq in spite of similar form filing delays, delisting is certainly not unheard of. In January, Comverse Technology Inc. received word that its common stock would indeed be delisted from the market due to delayed filing of its SEC forms. Comverse's stock is now traded on the Pink Sheets following the delisting.
