Officials from beleaguered Unix software developer SCO Group met with NASDAQ officials Thursday over the fate of its publicly trade stock.
The Lindon, Utah, company was warned
by officials at the stock exchange in February that it faced delisting for
its failure to file its annual report, Form 10-K, with the Securities &
Exchange Commission (SEC). The company had missed two deadlines, Jan. 31
and Feb. 15, to file the report with the commission.
The NASDAQ listing qualification panel met with SCO officials to hear the
reasons for the delay in filing.
“What was presented was a lot of what we’ve talked about and announced
publicly — basically the reason behind the company’s recent restatement and
how that has impacted the company’s ability to turn in its Form 10-K to the
SEC,” said Blake Stowell, a SCO spokesman.
He also said the company has gotten some good feedback from its auditors,
KPMG, and were close to being able to file.
SCO officials in the past have said the delay was caused by accounting
errors related to its employee stock compensation program.
Earlier this month, the company announced it would need to restate
the financial statements for the first three quarters of 2004.
Typically, a final decision whether to delist or not by the NASDAQ panel can
take between 30 and 40 days, though it can happen sooner or later than that
timeframe, said a source familiar with the SCO proceedings. Generally
speaking, the source told internetnews.com, the panel can also take
new information into consideration before issuing its final decree.
“To the extent that a company was to become compliant with the filing
requirement prior to the issuance of the decision, that would be considered
and would certainly have an impact on the ultimate decision,” the source
said.
SCO is embroiled in a lengthy breach of contract and copyright infringement
lawsuit with IBM over the alleged use of Unix System IV
source code in the Linux kernel.