American Community Newspapers (ACN) was already facing a potential delisting of its stock, but the company has taken the initiative to voluntarily delist – and to deregister with the SEC as well. ACN owns a string of newspapers in Texas, Minnesota, Ohio and Virginia.
“The decision to voluntarily delist and deregister will save management time and attention on SEC reporting and Sarbanes Oxley compliance. Furthermore, it will eliminate listing fees and result in reduced expenses associated with compliance efforts, such as accounting fees, legal fees, other professional fees and administrative costs,” the company said. If all goes according to schedule, the stock (“ANE”) will cease trading on the NYSE Alternext (the new name for the old AMEX) on or about November 11th.
ACN reported that revenues for the first half of this year fell 13.1% to $33.1 million. It lost $73.9 million for the six month period.
The company owns three daily and 83 weekly newspapers, along with 14 niche publications. Their combined circulation is put at 1.4 million households.
RBR/TVBR observation: Deregistering and delisting don’t mean that you no longer have stock in public hands which can still be traded. CC Media, the owner of Clear Channel, is not listed on any exchange, but its stock trades every day on the so-called pink sheets. The company does have SEC-registered bonds, though, lots and lots of them. ACME Communications, a TV group owner, is currently in the process of delisting and deregistering, but will continue to issue quarterly earnings reports.
