What's the worst thing that can happen to a publicly traded company? Not having your shares listed comes to mind ...
As of the start of trading this morning, Interplay was no longer listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Interplay was informed of the delisting yesterday by NASDAQ officials.
A delisting occurs when a publicly traded company's stock falls below a certain price, and for a certain period of time. For NASDAQ, it's usually a price of one dollar, and for a period of 30 trading sessions. It is possible to be delisted for different reason, such as not meeting certain net worth requirements.
Interplay can still be traded publicly on the "Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board" (OTCBB) under the ticker IPLY. However, not being listed on a major exchange means no analyst coverage, and virtually no profile in the investor community. It also means that the likelyhood of raising additional capital becomes nil.
Interplay has until October 23rd to appeal the ruling, but as Interplay closed at just seven cents at the time of it's delisting, it's highly unlikely an appeal would yield any positive result for the company.
It is possible for the company to be relisted on NASDAQ at a later time, due to recently amended rules NASDAQ instituted in the current economic climate. However, the company would likely need to show significant improvement before that would happen.
