Yup. A ton. 4X the Float traded in 2 days.
Bidz.com to Investigate and Report Recent Trading Activity to Regulators
Bidz.com to Investigate and Report Recent Trading Activity to Regulators
Wednesday November 28, 5:02 pm ET
CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bidz.com (NASDAQ:BIDZ - News), a leading online auctioneer of jewelry, announced today that it has directed legal counsel to investigate possible wrongdoing by editor Andrew Left of Citron Research, who published a derogatory profile on Bidz.com on Citron’s website, and others in connection with recent trading in the Company’s securities. The Company is concerned that recent selling activity in the Company’s common stock may violate the federal securities laws. In particular the Company is concerned that this activity may not be in compliance with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements governing short-sales, and the recent rule amendments enacted by the SEC to, among other things, curb potentially abusive “naked” short selling. The Company has reported this activity to both NASDAQ and the SEC.
In an article published by the AP yesterday, Mr. Left reportedly stated that he shorts Bidz’ shares, implying that he stands to profit from a drop in the stock price. Following the publication of Mr. Left’s report, the volume of trading as reported by The NASDAQ Stock Market increased dramatically. Since Monday, November 26, when the report was published reported volume has been over 30,717,474 shares. As of November 23, 2007, the total number of shares of basic common stock outstanding was 24,211,178 of which 8,061,717 shares are registered, freely tradable or otherwise known as “float.”
A short sale is generally the sale of a stock the seller does not own (or that the seller will borrow for delivery). If the price of the stock drops, short sellers buy the stock at the lower price and make a profit. If the price of the stock rises, short sellers will incur a loss. Typically, when a seller sells short, the seller’s brokerage firm loans the stock. The stock borrowed comes from either the firm’s own inventory, the margin account of other brokerage firm clients, or another lender.
An abusive “naked” short sale generally refers to selling short without having stock available for delivery and intentionally failing to deliver stock within the standard three-day settlement cycle. As a result, the seller fails to deliver securities to the buyer when delivery is due (known as a “failure to deliver” or “fail”).
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation SHO is intended to address these effects by reducing the number of potential failures to deliver, and by limiting the time in which a broker can permit a fail to deliver to persist. Regulation SHO requires brokers and dealers to close-out the open fail-to-deliver positions in “threshold securities” (i.e., securities that have experienced a substantial number of extended delivery failures) that have persisted for 13 consecutive settlement days. As of November 23, 2007, the Company’s Common Stock was included on the Threshold Security List.
Investors should be aware that the market price of the Company’s common stock in the next several days may be volatile, as sellers either continue to short sell shares or “cover” their short positions by purchasing or borrowing securities.
Meanwhile, the Company intends to focus its efforts on improving its business operations and increasing its profitability. The Company believes and is confident that the market will ultimately recognize the value in Bidz.com shares and the regulators will evaluate the recent trading activity and address any wrongful conduct.
AI
