InteliData Technologies Corp., the electronic bill payment vendor facing a potential delisting from the Nasdaq National Market, plans to move its stock to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market at the opening of business today.
But even on the smaller board, the stock's price would be too low. InteliData said Friday that it "currently meets all criteria for continued inclusion in the Nasdaq SmallCap Market except for the $1 minimum bid price per share requirement."
The once-thriving company, whose stock price reached a peak of over $20 a share in early 2000, said it would have a grace period to get its stock price to $1 or higher. The grace period will expire Dec. 13; if the price stays below $1, InteliData may be eligible for an additional grace period that would expire June 13, as long as it remains in compliance with the other initial listing standards.
The move to an exchange for companies with a smaller capitalization is yet another symbol of InteliData's struggles. It said a month ago that it would refocus its sales efforts to target midtier banking customers, and that its losses had reached $27.8 million in the second quarter, because it was having trouble closing sales.
In June, InteliData said it had received notice that it faced a delisting from the Nasdaq National Market, because the price had been below $1 since May. Last week it hovered in the 40-cent range.
Alfred S. Dominick Jr., the chairman and chief executive of InteliData, said in a press release Friday that the SmallCap exchange "is the appropriate market for the company's stock at this stage." However, "we do not expect our listing on the SmallCap Market to materially change how our stock is traded."
"They have had a couple of bad business breaks," said Beth Robertson, a senior analyst with TowerGroup, the Needham, Mass., market research company.
This year two midtier banks that use InteliData's technology - Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank - decided to take the maintenance of those products in-house, and InteliData lost two sources of ongoing revenue, Ms. Robertson said.
InteliData also lost a major customer, First Union Corp., when it bought the old Wachovia Corp. and decided to no longer use InteliData's application, she said.
InteliData's technology is solid, but the ongoing perception among investors and potential customers is that the company may not survive, Ms. Robertson said. "Their biggest hurdle now is that their market image has suffered."
Also, InteliData could be viewed as an acquisition target, she said. "They have some good assets. They just have to find someone that is interested."
