Creative delisting from NASDAQ, cites 'burdensome' regulations

So it looks like we're not the only ones who are sick and tired of filling out forms and sending them in to Uncle Sam, as Singapore-based Creative has announced plans to delist its publicly traded shares from the NASDAQ Global Exchange, citing administrative costs associated with meeting "increasingly burdensome U.S. reporting obligations." The manufacturer of such diverse products as X-Fi sound cards and Live! webcams expects to withdraw its ordinary shares by August 1st and move trading entirely over to the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, which already sees 90% of the company's average worldwide daily trading volume anyway. As expected, Creative's US shares have already started to tank as investors contemplate the complications of trading in a foreign market, but Creative diehards can probably anticipate a rebound once the integration has been completed. Or so our boiler room broker tells us...

[Via epiZENter]

[Christian Martin @ Jun 14th 2007 11:03AM]

That's okay; I decided to stop using their products years ago due to "increasingly burdensome driver suckage."

[John @ Jun 14th 2007 11:11AM]

Sarbanes Oxley strikes again. And to all of you who say "Sarbanes what?", you're part of the problem in this country.

[John B @ Jun 14th 2007 11:31AM]

Unfortunately, SOX is yet another one of those law that need to be repealed due to complete cluelessness on the part of the morons who wrote it. It's was nothing more than an attempt to make a feel-good, kiss-the-constituents'-asses, look-at-me-I'm-doing-something-because-am-pretending-to-care law. It only passed because the other lawmakers are equally as clueless and didn't want to look as though they didn't care about Enron.

I still have no problems with Creative sound cards, though. :P

[Mike McGrath @ Jun 14th 2007 2:34PM]

The CEO of the NYSE himself said that there was no question that SOX was necessary. If the corporations were capabable of policing themselves, then yes, there would be no need for SOX and everyone would be better off, but Enron and Worldcom proved that you can't trust the foxes to run the henhouse. The real people bitching about SOX are the greedy amoral sh*ts who can no longer get away with cooking the books like back in the bad old days.

[Davin Peterson @ Jun 14th 2007 11:53AM]

You forgot to mention they make the Zen MP3 players, which are better the dominate iPod. Because of the iPod, they've been constantly. losing money

[Matt @ Jun 14th 2007 1:14PM]

lolwut?

If their product is "better", why would they be losing money to an inferior one?

[paloooz @ Jun 14th 2007 12:05PM]

So it's Apple's fault? Hah!

[james.engadget @ Jun 14th 2007 12:10PM]

Ok, long shot, but perhaps it's a foreshadowing of NASDAQ or NYSE Euronext buying the Singapore Exchange. Are there are other Singaporian(?) companies trading on US exchanges, and have any of them recently delisted?

[Xander @ Jun 14th 2007 1:17PM]

Nah, really the only reason would be Sarbanes-Oxley. Volvo (the car maker and certainly not from Singapore) also decided today to delist from NYSE.

Lots of NYSE/NASDAQ listed companies would want to, but are deterred by the PR backlash and administrative burden of delisting. But no company in it right mind starts a listing at NYSE/NASDAW nowadays.

Actually, the Dutch government made only one but very hard demand on approving a NYSE / Euronext merger: that the merger would not bring SOX to Euronext.

About the only good thing of SOX is that it gives me a fulltime wellpayed job ;-)

[Csykes @ Jun 25th 2007 5:33PM]

Why didn't they just file a Form 15 and delist to the OTCBB ?? With SOX compliance sucking the life out of companies it's better to simply go "Over the counter"

[strider_mt2k @ Jun 14th 2007 12:50PM]

Look, I've always equated Creative with Sound Blaster sound cards for PCs. I've never really used their PMPs.

My point is that with built-in sound solutions being more than enough for many people and their so so place in the player market I'm not surprised to read this.

The market continues to shit with the technology.

[strider_mt2k @ Jun 14th 2007 12:50PM]

shift.

I meant shift, very very sorry.

[sdsdv10 @ Jun 14th 2007 2:06PM]

Yeah, sure you did ;-)

Freudian slip me thinks...

[-pd- @ Jun 14th 2007 3:15PM]

FairTax FTW!

[KC @ Jun 14th 2007 3:46PM]

SOX. Thanks to Enron and accountants who cooked the books. Now those same accountants are still employed elsewhere, making more money, and we're stuck with SOX.