If you bought one share of Citadel at the end of trading last week, you’d have gotten change back from your dime – a penny, to be exact. The bottom line is that NYSE has announced its decision to take the company off the board.
The Exchange stated, “NYSE Regulation, Inc. announced today that it determined that the common stock of Citadel Broadcasting – ticker symbol CDL – should be suspended prior to the opening on Friday, March 6, 2009. The Company expects to commence trading on the over-the-counter (OTC) market that same day under a symbol yet to be determined. The decision was reached in view of the fact that the Company has fallen below the Exchange’s continued listing standard regarding average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading-day period of less than $75 million and average closing price of less than $1.00 over a consecutive 30 trading-day period. The Company submitted a business plan to address non-compliance with the NYSE’s continued listing standards. However, after reviewing these materials, the NYSE decided to proceed with suspension of trading as described above.”
In what had to be considered a bad week, Citadel also learned it had lost an arbitration case involving AFTRA members at three Washington DC stations. It involved severance for five laid-off AFTRA members, who were awarded over $50K in back pay. According to AFTRA, “…the arbitrator ruled that Citadel had breached the AFTRA agreements by subverting the clear language of the AFTRA Agreement, and ordered Citadel to pay full severance pay to all affected employees.”
