Shutting the Back Door

To get a listing on the Big Board of the New York Stock Exchange, a corporation must meet some stiff requirements. The company must prove that it is stable, show net earnings of at least $1,000,000 the preceding year, have at least 1,500 stockholders. But there is a back door to a listing that has been much easier to slip through. Unlisted companies have bought up the corporate shell of a firm listed on the exchange, thus picked up the listing with no trouble. In other cases companies have sold out everything but the listing, then gone into a different field under a new name. Last week the exchange's Board of Governors bolted this back door. Henceforth, said President Keith Funston, "the Stock Exchange will refuse to list additional stock if the surviving company does not meet current initial listing standards."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.