Yesterday (March 31th) Airspan has bombarded their investors with 8 SEC filings. Most important are the 10-k announcing earnings for 2008 and the notification of de-listing from NADSAQ.
It apperas that Airspan (NASDAQ: AIRN) has decided there is no point fighting the inevitable de-listing. On top of that Airspan management has given the following reasons:
- the ongoing direct and indirect costs of public company compliance and the disproportionate impact of the foregoing costs on results of operations
- the significant burden on Airspan’s management involved in the preparation of the Company’s public reports and compliance with accounting and other requirements of the Exchange Act;
- the limited benefits to Airspan and its unaffiliated shareholders from the status as a “reporting company” in light of, among other things, the fact that the price of the common shares has been extremely low and the common shares have had limited liquidity in recent periods
- the fact that due to market conditions, the low share price and low market capitalization Airspan is not currently in a position to use its public company status to issue meaningful amounts of equity securities or make acquisitions; and
- Airspan’s belief that the number of shareholders of record is below 300.
Does it sound like a “Game Over? I have still many friends working there, so I hope this is not the case.
Airspan Yahoo message board has comments from some (300 or less) disgrunted investors who complain about the strange reasons given. It is evident that the company cannot avoid de-listing, and that should be the only reason. Saying that the management is burdened with the preparation of the public repots is not really a good one. Going public (IPO) is not just a way to get “easy money”; the money comes with a HUGE responsibility to the share holders; that should be the main focus of every CEO.
Highlights of the 10-k:
- Revenues for 2008 are $70,351,000 – worst in the last few years (10-k presents the results from 2004). Comparing to the previous 10-Q of $56,339,000 -> 4th Q revenues were $14,000,000 (lower than Q3).
- Loss from operations: $49,698,000. Compared to 10Q $27,329,000 -> Did Airspan lose $22,000,000 in Q4?
- …
Decided to stop my analysis here, it was just too depressing.