Verint granted 90-day extension from NASDAQ, downplays Comverse review

MELVILLE, N.Y.--Video analytic software maker Verint Systems held a conference call with investors last week to discuss first quarter results, but remains unable to file first quarter results with the Securities and Exchange Commission, due to parent company Comverse's ongoing internal investigation into options practices. This filing delay led NASDAQ, where Verint is traded, to issue a letter to the company alerting it of non-compliance with NASDAQ rules and possible delisting. However, Verint on Tuesday received a 90-day extension from NASDAQ for its filing deadline, the result of a May 24 petition hearing. "We're waiting for information from Comverse that will enable us to finalize our financials," said Verint vice president of corporate development and investor relations Alan Roden. "We're dependent on them finishing their internal review." Verint, originally wholly owned by Comverse, became public through an "IPO carve out" in 2002, and Comverse still owns 58 percent of the company. Because of this affiliation, when Comverse announced this spring that it was forming a special committee to review options-granting practices, Verint was forced to take notice. "Verint employees were granted options by Comverse," said Roden. "Comverse may have to take a charge, and Verint may have to take a charge, because the charge follows the employees." Until Verint knows what that charge is--purely an accounting charge, said Roden--the company can't, with certainty, file its financials. Will 90 days be enough time? "Unfortunately, it's an independent committee that's conducting the review," Roden said, "and we don't have great visibility into that process. We just don't have the information. But Comverse is similarly motivated with Verint to get this done and get it behind us." For more on Verint's financial reports and M&A plans, see the August issue of Security Systems News.