SkillSoft, a firm which recently acquired Dublin-based SmartForce, may be delisted from the Nasdaq because it has not filed certain financial data with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shares in the US company fell 8 per cent yesterday when SkillSoft confirmed it had received notification from Nasdaq that it was subject to delisting because it had failed to file a SEC report for the quarter ended October 31st, 2002.
The delay in filing the SEC document - which details the company's quarterly financial accounts - has occurred because SkillSoft has to restate certain historical financial statements relating to SmartForce for a three-year period prior to the merger of the two companies in September 2002.
Last month SkillSoft's shares lost one-third of their value when the US firm revealed that SmartForce, the Irish e-learning firm, had improperly accounted for its revenues over a three-year period.
The firm said SmartForce, one of the Republic's most successful technology firms, may have booked up to ?40 million revenue earlier than it should have during the technology boom.
This should not have any adverse effect on the firm's operating results for the quarter ended October 31st, 2002, or its business outlook for future fiscal periods. However, SkillSoft said it was possible other items might be discovered in the process of restating SmartForce's accounts.
Yesterday SkillSoft said in a statement that it intended to make a timely request for a hearing before a Nasdaq panel to review the determination, and hoped to comply with the rule by filing its quarterly report prior to any Nasdaq delisting.
Shares in SkillSoft closed down 7.33 per cent to $2.67 on the Nasdaq yesterday.
The e-learning company also faces a number of class action law suits from shareholders following its earlier announcement that it would have to restate revenue following its acquisition of SmartForce. More than three US law firms have filed class action law suits against SmartForce, and two of its executives, Mr William McCabe and Mr Greg Priest.
In several of these suits, the law firms allege SmartForce's failure to supply investors with correct financial details over the previous three-year period amounted to fraud.
SmartForce already faces a $500 million (?489 million) class action suit for damages relating to a previous profit warning issued by the firm in 1998. A San Francisco law firm, Gold Bennett Cera & Sidener, initiated the case in 1999 but only recently received clearance for a full hearing from a federal judge.
