Novell, Dell Face Delisting From NASDAQ

narramissic writes to tell us that Novell has confirmed receiving a delisting notice from the NASDAQ stock exchange, after the software company delayed filing its most recent quarterly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Dell is in the same position. Both companies, and others including Apple, are grappling with investigations of the way they issued stock options and — in Dell's case — other accounting irregularities. Both companies are appealing the delisting, which means they won't vanish from the stock exchange anytime soon. NASDAQ rules require listed companies to announce the receipt of a delisting notice.

Non-story anyway.

[khasim]

Novell simply did not file some paperwork by the deadline because Novell is still working on stats related to awarding stock options.

Once they get those stats straight and file the paperwork, they'll be back in compliance and out of delisting danger (from this issue).

Stock option accounting? Amateurs...

[UbuntuDupe]

The issue of how to represent stock options (i.e., the *option* for an employee to buy stock at some pre-determined rate that may be below the market price, and may or may not be redeemed for stock) on a balance sheet is a difficult, and often debated one. Standards about how to represent them on a balance sheet have changed recently, and it's understandable about how there would be errors here. Even Apple screwed up this way (can't find the link, but it was on slashdot a month or so ago).

Why not focus on the REAL crime in accounting: the handling of pensions and health care obligations? For decades they were allowed to basically say, "hey, when it comes time to pay you, trust us, we'll have new revenues, and we'll pay you out of that". By not putting these obligations on the balance sheet now, millions of workers' pensions are at risk, and the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation may go bankrupt as corporations try to shuck defined benefit plans (which are stupid anyway, but I digress). For GM and I'm sure several others, the present value of these obligations would more than cancel out their entire book value, i.e., the nominal value of all assets they hold. Oops!

And this isn't about some high-paid employees getting a little extra cash. This is about *retirement money*. And they're still allowed to hide the true cost of these things.

Someone's priorities are out of order...

Re:Novell?

[operagost]

Except Windows 95 is really broken. Trust me on that! Netware, on the other hand, is pretty solid (except for 4.11 out of the box. That thing needed a few patches).

Re:Stock Option Backdating

[GlL]

I think that blood boiling was a little too mild for my reaction. This kind of white collar crime affects so many more people than one guy robbing a convenience store, but these guys just get slapped on the wrist. I have a much better idea. Lets send these alleged people to places like Riker's Island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikers_Island [wikipedia.org] Put them in GP and let them experience real imprisonment. I guarantee you that there will be a huge downturn in white collar crime after some executive who bilked investors of millions does hard time.

Retirement plans and the government.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Why not focus on the REAL crime in accounting: the handling of pensions and health care obligations? For decades they were allowed to basically say, "hey, when it comes time to pay you, trust us, we'll have new revenues, and we'll pay you out of that". By not putting these obligations on the balance sheet now, millions of workers' pensions are at risk, and the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation may go bankrupt [...]

Why should the government make the companies do that? They do exactly the same thing with Social Security. Just substitute "Federal Treasury" for "Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation".

The fed "borrows" from the Social Security "trust fund", substituting special treasury bonds with ridiculously low interest rates, and these bonds are NOT included in the national debt calculation. Then the fed spends the money - which will eventually have to be made up from other taxes.

Re:Greaatt...just what i needed to hear

[Waffle Iron]

I'm currently rethinking that resume and interview with Novell now...

It could be a good thing: This will probably drive their stock price down quite a bit. If they hire you, any options you get will be set that much lower. After this all blows over, the price will recover and you collect the difference.

The actual thing that should make you rethink your interview is their almost uninterrupted history of marketing blunders over the past 15 years.

Re:Retirement plans and the government.

[pete6677]

All of this just goes to show what a crock the pension system is. If you don't control your money, don't count on it being there for you at some future date.