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Home >> About Pink Sheets >> News Release
:: NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: New York, NY - November 6, 2006 - Pink Sheets, LLC today announced the introduction of new categories for the companies traded on the Pink Sheets Electronic Interdealer Quotation and Trading System. The decision to start categorizing each security traded on the Pink Sheets is a move to provide more transparency to investors on the ability and willingness of issuers to provide adequate public disclosure in a credible and timely manner. Pink Sheets is a quotation and trading venue that does not have minimum disclosure standards. Trading is driven by OTC market demand rather than the traditional exchange listing process. Therefore, categorizing securities by their level of disclosure will greatly enhance the capital formation process. The categories are based on the level, quality and timeliness of a company's disclosure. The initiative is similar to the various markets that NASDAQ uses to classify companies as well as the identifiers that NASDAQ and NYSE use to label companies that are late or delinquent in disclosure. Pink Sheets will implement the new categories on May 1, 2007. Companies that have substantial operating businesses and provide credible disclosure to the public qualify for the premium tier OTCQX, which commences trading on January 2007. For more information on OTCQX, please see our website at www.otcqx.com. Approximately 20% of the current Pink Sheets or OTC Bulletin Board traded companies could qualify for an OTCQX listing. All Pink Sheets quoted securities of issuers that are not able or willing to meet the high standards of OTCQX will be placed in one of the following categories and labeled as such on www.pinksheets.com effective May 1, 2007:
The companies that wish to be designated as OTCQX or Emerging Equities List companies are required to submit an application as they will be agreeing to provide a minimum level of disclosure. Adequate Current Information and Limited Information Available require non-SEC-reporting issuers to subscribe to the Pink Sheets News Service to make the information publicly available. "The creation of the OTCQX and the forthcoming Pink Sheets categories are the next step in our continuing efforts to improve the Pink Sheets trading environment," commented Cromwell Coulson, Chairman and CEO of Pink Sheets. "We have transformed the Pink Sheets from a nearly dormant paper-based quotation service to a fully integrated electronic quotation, trading and disclosure system with almost $25 billion in volume of trading in the first quarter of this year and market maker participation from 200 of the largest securities firms in the world. Because of our highly efficient trading platform, over 90% of inter-dealer trading in OTC Bulletin Board securities now trades through our systems. In addition, we have given issuers the ability to communicate with the investment public through our website, pinksheets.com, which registers over 100 million page views from investors each month." Additional efforts to enhance transparency and investor confidence include successfully persuading the NASD to require its members to include Pink Sheets and OTC Bulletin Board securities in the monthly short-interest reports. Pink Sheets has also petitioned the SEC to create rules that would expose illegal promotion activities such as spam e-mails that can tarnish the reputation of good companies and diminish the price of their stock. "Companies are known by the company they keep, and we hope that in providing these new categories, companies that provide disclosure to the public will clearly stand apart from those companies that are of lesser quality," concluded Mr. Coulson. # # # |
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