Unless there is a last-minute change, Metalink Ltd. (Nasdaq: MTLK;TASE: MTLK) will be delisted from Nasdaq Capital Market on December 9. The company was relegated to the Nasdaq Capital Market after it was dropped from the main Nasdaq General Market in February.
On Friday, the company announced that on November 30, 2009, it received a Nasdaq Staff determination letter that the company had failed to comply with Nasdaq rules for staying listed: the company's share had closed at less than $1 over the previous 30 consecutive business days. In September, Nasdaq notified the company that it was not in compliance with the $2.5 million minimum shareholders' equity threshold.
Metalink is trying to regain compliance through a reverse share split of up to one-for-ten. The company's shareholders are scheduled to vote on the measure at the annual shareholders' meeting on December 31.
Metalink has actually not been in compliance with Nasdaq's listing rule for a long time before receipt of the present notification, but Nasdaq twice suspended enforcement of the bid price requirement, due to the global economic crisis.
Metalink obtained a six-month reprieve in September, when a lender agreed to a postponement on a $3.75 million debt payment until March 2010. Metalink has $3.8 million in cash, only slightly above the debt due.
The price at which Metalink held its IPO ten years ago, not to mention its secondary offering, seem now like a distant dream. The IPO in late 1999 was held at $12 per share, giving a market cap of $200 million, and the share subsequently soared. The company held a secondary offering four months later at $45 per share.
Metalink's share has since fallen 99.9% to close at $0.30 on Nasdaq yesterday, giving a market cap of $7.7 million. The share fell 5.3% by mid-afternoon on the TASE today to NIS 1.09.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 6, 2009
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