Not to split hairs, but I really don't think there is a required minimum bid of $3.00. I wouldn't even mention this, but the scenario I'm about to describe closely resembles what we were looking at going into the close, and it illustrates the importance of defining what the $3.00 price means. It might even be relevant tomorrow.
Imagine, in the last seconds of the trading day today, the following spreads:
$2.98 x $3.04
Assume we trade at $2.98, and the spread changes to
$3.01 x $3.04.
The bell rings before we trade.
Even though the bid was $3.01, we would not have met the closing price alternative. The closing price was $2.98. It's the closing price, not the closing bid price, that is considered.
I hope we close above $4.00 tomorrow, and we can forget this discussion about a closing price alternative.
But what if we don't close above $4.00? Or, to turn this into a scary story, what if we don't close above $3.00, either?
What to do, what to do? How do we eliminate the risk of a denial to uplist on NASDAQ?
File the 10-K tonight, or before the market opens. NASDAQ can uplist us based on the closing price alternative.
But if this selling is from a deep-pocketed frenemy, Big Pharma trying to keep us off NASDAQ in order to buy us cheap, they could unleash a tidal wave of selling, forcing our share price to a sub-$3.00 closing price.
A little paranoid, I know. But the 10-K has to be filed either before the market opens, or after the market closes. The alternative is to file an NT 10-K, for whatever good that may do. And I don't know how much longer NASDAQ is going to want to wait.