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Nasdaq threatens to kick out Taser
The struggling stun gun maker plans to appeal. The stock market says it's acting because a third-quarter financial report was overdue.
Associated Press
Published November 26, 2005
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Stun gun maker Taser International Inc. said Friday that the Nasdaq Stock Market told the company its stock could be delisted because it failed to file its third-quarter financial report on time.
Taser said it will appeal Nasdaq's decision by requesting a hearing before the exchange's listing qualifications panel. Until the panel makes a decision, Taser's stock will continue to be traded on Nasdaq, though its stock symbol will be changed to "TASRE" from "TASR" until it files its quarterly report.
The report for the quarter ended Sept. 30 has been delayed pending the completion of a restatement of financial results for the prior two periods because legal fees and some other expenses were recorded in the wrong quarter. Taser's shares had tumbled 77 percent this year before Friday amid concern about the safety of its stun guns and a Securities and Exchange Commission accounting investigation.
The company said Oct. 26 that net income plunged 96 percent in the third quarter as safety questions hurt sales. Sales in the period fell 38 percent from a year earlier to $11.7-million.
The company has been battered with complaints about the safety and use of its weapons, which deliver shocks of up to 50,000 volts to immobilize people.
This summer, Taser International issued a training bulletin warning that repeated blasts of Tasers can "impair breathing and respiration."
The manufacturer had previously dismissed safety concerns raised by groups such as Amnesty International, which documented 129 U.S. and Canadian deaths of people stunned by Tasers.
In Miami-Dade County just over a year ago, police acknowledged using a stun gun on a 55-pound first-grader and on a 12-year-old girl who was skipping school.
In another incident at roughly the same time, a Broward County officer shot a 12-year-old with a stun gun in a confrontation on a school bus.
Neither child had lasting injuries from the shocks, but the incident caused an uproar and reviews of police policies.
Concerns prompted the Florida PTA this month to call for the devices to be used only as an alternative to shooting a student with a gun and for lawmakers to further study the device's effect on people.
The company's shares shed 90 cents, or 12 percent, to close at $6.50 Friday on Nasdaq.
[Last modified November 26, 2005, 02:30:29]
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