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Technology Stocks : IRID - Iridium World Communications IPO Announced! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FESHBACH_DISCIPLE who wrote (2519)	12/7/1999 2:00:00 AM
From: FESHBACH_DISCIPLE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2693

Don't go down in history as these hopless haps have. KURT EICHENWALD New York Times News Service 16-Sep-1993 Thursday Another company with a well-known name is about to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, so another favorite Wall Street ritual is under way: Pros are selling the company's virtually worthless stock to foolish retail investors, while the exchanges do nothing. The company, Wang Laboratories, the onetime giant maker of computers, is expected to emerge next week from more than a year of reorganization as a smaller, humbler company. The prospect of Wang's rebirth has created a lot of excitement as investors rush to buy what they apparently believe is a cheap piece of a turnaround. Volume in the company's shares has been enormous in recent weeks, with more than 2 million shares trading hands on some days. Wang's class B shares have been trading between 50 cents and 60 cents for the last two months, closing yesterday at 56.25 cents on American Stock Exchange volume of 691,500. Its smaller number of class C shares has been trading from 70 cents to more than $1, closing yesterday at 75 cents with 27,400 shares trading hands on the Amex. What's wrong with this picture? The two classes of shares will be canceled under the reorganization, and replaced with warrants that will give the stock a value close to zero. That means every purchaser of Wang stock is essentially throwing away cash. "These warrants will trade -- we are really being literal here -- for a few pennies," said Frank J. Ryan, a spokesman for Wang. "I'm not saying a dime or a nickel; I'm saying a few pennies." Those losses might have been avoided were it not for the American Stock Exchange. It decided last spring to ignore Wang's requests to delist the shares. Ryan says the listing continues "against our better judgment or advice." A spokesman said all Amex executives were unavailable yesterday afternoon. He referred to a statement issued in March that said Wang shares would remain listed because "investors will be best served through a continuation of the orderly trading provided by its auction market system." In other words, the Amex essentially says that if investors are going to flush their money down the toilet, let them to do it at our house, where the plumbing is better.