NYSE Suspends Trading of BearingPoint Stock

The New York Stock Exchange regulatory board is suspending from trading BearingPoint, one of the country’s largest technology integrators and solution providers, because its stock price is “abnormally low” and it has failed to maintain the minimum market capitalization.

BearingPoint stock closed at 7 cents Friday, 64 percent lower than its Nov. 7 closing price. The company’s stock has not traded above $1 per share since Sept. 11. According to NYSE, the McLean, Va.-based company’s market capitalization is now below $100 million, the minimum level for listing on the technology-heavy exchange.

BearingPoint management announced that it will submit a plan for storing its financial and trading standing by Dec. 12.  

The BearingPoint suspension, effective today (Nov. 17), is the worst of a string of bad news to hit publicly traded channel companies last week. In one of the worst weeks of stock trading ever, 31 of the 40 solution providers tracked by Channel Insider saw declines in their stock price. Market pressures driven by the mounting recession are taking a heavy toll on the technology community, as investors show a lack of confidence in their ability to maintain revenues and profits.

The repercussions on the channel resulting from the stock market woes include:

• Insight, a direct market reseller, announced earnings were down 25 percent. It anticipates a “shocking” fourth quarter performance. As a result, it’s laying off 8 percent of its workforce—about 5,800 employees worldwide.
• Convergys saw a steep drop in third quarter earnings and anticipates a gloomy fourth quarter.
• Office Max, an office equipment retailer and professional services company, is laying off 245 employees because of sluggish revenues.
• PC Connection announced a 50 percent drop in profits, as it took special charges relating to layoffs, restructuring and executive separation compensation.
• SRA International reported an increase in revenues, but declining profits.

Publicly traded technology vendors aren’t fairing much better. Of the 50 vendors tracked by Channel Insider, only four saw positive movement in their week-over-week stock performance.

The biggest loser among vendors is Nortel, which saw a 108 percent drop in its stock price. And despite releasing new processors, AMD and Intel saw declines of 30 percent and 10 percent, respective, in their stock value.

VMware and other virtualization software vendors that were once resistant to the market slide are showing signs of fatigue. VMware’s stock fell by one-third, while Citrix saw a 9 percent decline.

Investors are expecting another rough week of trading as Japan, the world’s second largest economy, announced that it’s officially in a recession.

Click below here to review the week-over-week stock performance of technology vendors and solution providers.