Thursday, August 6, 2009

ARTISTdirect Drops SEC Reporting, Public Listing

Santa Monica-based ARTISTdirect said this week that it is suspending reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and will no longer be filing financial reports for the firm. The move will remove the firm's stock from the OTC Bulletin Board, where the firm has been since it was delisted from the NASDAQ in 2003, when its shares and value fell below NASDAQ standards. According to ARTISTdirect, the move comes because it felt it could eliminate "substantial expenses" associated with its reporting status--a common complaint of small, rarely tracked, and thinly traded OTCBB firms. The lack of reporting means the company will not qualify for trading on any national exchange, but can be traded on the Pink Sheets. ARTISTdirect went public in March of 2000, during the Internet heyday.

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