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Talk of the bay

Symbol changes reflect Trinsic's rough ride

By LOUIS HAU
Published October 17, 2005

For many publicly traded companies, their stock's ticker symbol can remain unchanged for decades. General Electric has always been GE. McDonald's has always been MCD. Ford Motor Co. has always been F.

Then there's Trinsic Inc. of Tampa. Depending on when you checked during the past year, the phone company's ticker was ZTLDC. Or TRINC. Or TRNCD. Here's a quick guide to the alphabetic confusion:

1. At this time last year, Trinsic still was known by its old name, Z-Tel Technologies. Its stock traded under the symbol ZTEL.

2. Then the company ran afoul of Nasdaq SmallCap Market listing requirements when its stock price fell below $1 a share. Nasdaq allowed Z-Tel's shares to remain listed while the company prepared measures to regain compliance. To reflect this probationary status, Z-Tel was required in early November to add a "c" to its ticker symbol, which now became ZTELC.

3. Several weeks later, Z-Tel completed a 1-for-5 reverse stock split, which required the company to add a "d" to its ticker for 20 trading days. But Nasdaq ticker symbols are limited to a maximum of five letters. So Z-Tel dropped the "e" in its symbol, resulting in ZTLDC.

4. By the end of 2004, Z-Tel was back in compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements and its ticker returned to ZTEL. But on Jan. 4, Z-Tel changed its name to Trinsic Inc. Its ticker accordingly was changed to TRIN.

5. By early May, the company's downtrodden stock was again in violation of Nasdaq listing requirements. A few months later, its ticker became TRINC.

6. After another reverse stock split in late September, the ticker morphed into TRNCD.

That's where things stand today. If Trinsic's third-quarter report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows it has built up enough stockholders equity to meet Nasdaq listing requirements, its ticker will return to TRIN.

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 18:04:02]