Hard on the heels of TheGlobe.com’s delisting from The Nasdaq Stock Market,
women’s portal iVillage Inc. has received a compliance
notice warning it of the same fate.
In the notice, Nasdaq informed iVillage that its common stock had failed to
maintain a minimum bid price of $1.00 for 30 consecutive trading days as
required by The Nasdaq National Market under Marketplace Rule 4450(a)(5).
iVillage — a media portal that targets women — will have until July 19,
2001, or 90 calendar days, to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s continued
listing requirements.
While the warning comes as no surprise, the realization that the shoe has
finally dropped for a well-known, long-standing Alley play sent shock waves
across the New York metro area.
Pundits familiar with the situation said it was particularly difficult to
witness iVillage’s Nasdaq predicament, particularly because the company has
a long history in the Alley. People familiar with the situation agreed that
iVillage had taken the usual steps to edge away from the delisting brink.
Like many dot-coms, iVillage has taken action within the last year to remain
buoyant in a tech marketplace that has witnessed a decline in advertising
spending and has pummeled most Internet companies, including online gaming
community TheGlobe.com, which was delisted yesterday.
In July 2000, iVillage switched its focus from retailing to shoring up its
media content. The company closed its iBaby ecommerce division and confirmed
that the expertise needed to operate a retail outfit with an out-of-state
warehousing operation was, simply put, beyond its know-how.
On April 19, atNewYork.com reported that iVillage laid off 30 employees and reaffirmed first quarter
guidance that its fourth quarter revenue decline would not exceed 35
percent.
The six-year old company, which operates Lamaze Publishing and the Newborn
Channel currently has about 319 employees.
In a statement, the company said it believes several pending actions can
still place it in good standing with the Nasdaq.
Those actions include its acquisition of Women.com, which includes a $20
million investment from The Hearst Corporation and/or Women.com’s other
stockholders upon completion of the acquisition, and Hearst’s commitment to
purchase $15-21 million in advertising and production services over three
years.
“[This] will strengthen the company’s competitive position and increase its
attractiveness to new sponsors,” iVillage said.
While Hearst may be willing to spend big dollars to bring advertisers
on-board, the challenge for iVillage, and others, will be to find those
advertisers who are fast fleeing to offline properties.
In early morning going, shares in iVillage were trading at 80 cents, 5 cents
off its open at 85 cents and well-below its 52-week high of $16.00.
iVillage Faces Delisting from NASDAQ
