SCO faces ejection from Nasdaq

The lawyers ate my filing

By Ashlee Vance in Chicago • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 17th February 2005 17:16 GMT

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The Nasdaq exchange has threatened to delist The SCO Group unless the company can get up to date with a key filing meant for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

SCO today revealed that Nasdaq officials may pull it from the exchange unless it files its Form 10-K in a "timely fashion." Already packed down with lawsuits against IBM and Novell, SCO will now have to endure another hearing with Nasdaq officials if it wants to remain on the exchange. Without such a hearing, SCO will disappear from the market on Feb. 25.

"The Company expects to make a request for a hearing with the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel to appeal the Nasdaq staff's determination," SCO said. "This request will stay the delisting pending the hearing and a determination by the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel. There can be no assurance that the Panel will grant the Company's request for continued listing."

SCO has failed to file the Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2004 as a result of an internal investigation into how it handled stock compensation. "The Company is working to resolve these matters as soon as possible and expects to file its Form 10-K upon completion of its analysis," it said.

SCO's shares dipped more than 5 per cent once word of the potential delisting broke. They're sitting at $4.06, at the time of this report, well below the 52-week high of $14.50.

The company's stock once surged past $20 per share with some investors showing they believed SCO could win its patent and contract disputes against IBM. Over the past couple of years, however, investors have appeared less optimistic that SCO can prove IBM infringed its copyrights by allegedly placing Unix code in Linux. ®