Diebold Inc., which has not yet filed its second-quarter earnings report, also is going to be late filing its results for the third quarter.
The North Canton, Ohio, automated teller machine maker, which has been working with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sort out concerns related to its accounting practices, said in an SEC filing last week that it would be "unable to complete its financial statements for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2007, until it determines the most appropriate revenue recognition method and completes a review of these other outstanding accounting items."
The SEC began looking last year into Diebold's "bill and hold" accounting practice, in which the company receives payments for goods before they are delivered to the buyer; at issue is when the company should recognize the revenue.
"We are still going through the process of determining what our revenue recognition process will be" in future quarters, Mike Jacobsen, a spokesman for Diebold, said in an interview Tuesday.
It is difficult to say "what that process will be, or what that will mean in terms of filing our financial reports," he said. "We are moving as quickly as possible."
Diebold said last month that it would change the practice. The company has said in the past that it has used bill and hold accounting for more than 20 years, and that it recorded 11% of its 2006 revenue using the method.
In addition, Diebold said in the filing that the regulators have asked the company to provide additional information related to "certain bill and hold transactions."
It did not say when it expects to file its quarterly reports.
For the first quarter, Diebold reported a net loss of $5.9 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with net income of $12.7 million, or 18 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Its revenue increased 0.8%, to $628.4 million. The company said that increased sales of ATMs had been offset by a charge to shut down a manufacturing plant in France.
Diebold's shares have fallen since the SEC filing Friday. The shares closed at $37.68 Thursday but fell 3.2% Friday. They were trading at $36.73 Tuesday afternoon.
