Pinnacle Micro Dropped From Nasdaq Listings

Ailing data storage systems maker Pinnacle Micro Inc. said Wednesday that its stock has been removed from the Nasdaq market listings.

The company’s stock price and net tangible assets have fallen below Nasdaq’s minimum requirements.

Separately, the company said in an announcement released late Wednesday that its creditors continue cooperating with its efforts to restructure some of it debts. Creditors have extended their 7-month-old moratorium on collection actions against the Irvine-based company until Feb. 27.

Company officials could not be reached for comment.

Nasdaq requires a sustained stock price of at least $1 per share for listing on its electronic exchange. Pinnacle Micro’s common stock closed Wednesday at 56 cents a share, up 28 cents in heavy trading on word that the company’s creditors were giving it additional breathing room. The stock last traded above $1 a share on Sept. 18.

Pinnacle Micro develops optical storage technology and manufactures recordable compact disk systems for data storage. Analysts have traced the 11-year-old company’s present woes to its 1995 decision to switch from reselling other manufacturers’ products to making its own.

The company has been unable to build much market share, posted cumulative losses of $47.1 million over the past 11 quarters and has had at least two rounds of layoffs in the last six months.

Sales fell from a 1995 high of $81.8 million to $59.9 million last year. Pinnacle Micro has not yet released its 1997 report.

In October, the company and three of its former executives settled Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that they had overstated financial results in 1993 and 1995 in order to meet sales targets. As a result, the company restated its 1995 earnings, lowering profit for the year to $1.6 million from the previously reported $2.6 million.