If this week’s announcement by GateHouse Media
Inc. that the company has submitted a business plan to remain listed on the
New York Stock Exchange were a Muddy Waters tune, it might go a little something like this:
I know you want me to leave, baby
But if you let me stay, I promise to change my ways
Oww-wow-owww!
Back in August the NYSE warned the owner of the State Journal-Register that
the company was not in compliance with the exchange’s requirement to
maintain a market capitalization of its common stock at least $75 million
and to have an average stock price of $1 over any consecutive 30-day
period. The GateHouse plan, announced Oct. 6, outlines how the company
would reestablish NYSE compliance, which, according to a GateHouse
statement, includes, but is not limited to, the continued suspension of the
company’s formerly hefty dividend, the repayment of outstanding
debts, and building greater liquidity to be used for future debt payments.
I’ll give up on whiskey and gamblin’
I’ll even give up other women
Should the NYSE reject GateHouse’s proposal and
move forward with delisting, the company will make an “orderly
transition to an alternative market,” and “although the company
intends to cure the deficiencies and to return to compliance with the NYSE
continued listing requirements, there can be no assurance that it will be
able to do so.”
But if you still want to move on, baby, I’ll
understand
Woo!
After all, honey, I am who I am
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2008.
