Dell Receives NASDAQ Delisting Notice
As a result of investigations from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into possible inappropriate accounting among major corporations, many -- including Apple and nVidia -- have received notices from the NASDAQ stock exchange threatening possible de-listing if they don't file their quarterly 10-Q public status reports on time. Add Dell to that list this morning.
Most of the recent wave of SEC probes concern the practice of options backdating - issuing options as compensation to executives, whose exercise date is set far enough in the past that their value is instantly high. For Dell, however, that practice would have backfired; its stock value has traded consistently lower since January 2005.
However, Dell executives did admit they received the original notice of the SEC investigation in August 2005, which means they knew about possible accounting irregularities for at least one year before they disclosed it to the public.
So while the company will probably have to restate earnings, it's not yet clear how far back. Dell stock traded for as low as $17.44 per share in early 2000, before climbing to a high of $42.14 in December 2004. If any options backdating did take place, this would have been the more optimum timeframe. The U.S. attorney's office for New York's southern district, Dell noted today, joined the SEC in subpoenaing accounting documents dating back to 2002.
The trouble is, earnings reports for Dell between 2002 and today have not been consistently stellar. If Dell has to restate earnings going back as far as four years, which is not inconceivable, quarters where it posted slight revenue gains could be restated as loss quarters.
Dell's appeal to the NASDAQ for a hearing concerning de-listing automatically buys the company a bit more time to get its numbers together. In the meantime, Dell stock is continuing its downward plunge, falling as much as 1.75% in value by late morning to around $21.12 per share. If there's any positive news for Dell today, it could be that things could be worse, like in the case of HP.