TakeAway Points:
- Super Micro shares popped after the company named BDO as its independent auditor.
- The stock, which has cratered since peaking in March, has gained more than 50% over the last two trading days.
- Analysts at Mizuho said in a report that Nasdaq’s approval of Super Micro’s plan to stay listed could take two to five weeks.
- According to a police spokesperson on Tuesday, a camp of demonstrators against the development of the American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla’s plant in Grueneheide, close to Berlin, is being dispersed.
Super Micro shares increase
The stock has now climbed more than 50% over the last two trading days on optimism that it will keep its Nasdaq listing. Still, the company has lost about three-quarters of its value since its stock peaked in March, a decline that’s wiped out roughly $54 billion in market cap.
Super Micro is late in filing its 2024 year-end report with the SEC and said earlier this month that it was looking for a new accountant after its previous auditor, Ernst & Young, stepped down in October. Ernst & Young was new to the job, having replaced Deloitte & Touche as Super Micro’s accounting firm in March 2023.
Super Micro said in a statement late Monday that it told Nasdaq that the company believes it will be able to file its annual report for the year ended June 30, and quarterly report for the period ended Sept. 30. The company said it will remain listed on the Nasdaq pending the exchange’s “review of the compliance plan.”
Analysts at Mizuho, who previously suspended their rating on the stock, wrote in a note that Nasdaq still has to approve the plan, which could take two to five weeks.
Super Micro CEO Charles Liang said in Monday’s statement that appointing BDO marks “an important next step to bring our financial statements current, an effort we are pursuing with both diligence and urgency.”
Shares of Super Micro soared more than twentyfold over a two-year period from early 2022 until their peak in March. But the stock has been hammered on troubling news about its compliance with Nasdaq.
Super Micro has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom, due to its relationship with Nvidia. Sales last fiscal year more than doubled to $15 billion.
German police clear protest site at Tesla gigafactory
A camp of protesters opposed to the expansion of U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla’s plant in Grueneheide near Berlin is being cleared, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Numerous violations of assembly regulations, including resisting a police operation, meant that security could no longer be guaranteed, the spokesperson said.
The protesters, led by organising group Disrupt Tesla, argue that plans to double the size of its factory will damage the environment.
In a post on social media platform X on Monday, the group had called for mass protests against the expansion, saying it opposed “the destruction by Tesla and Elon Musk to protect forests and water”.
It has not commented on the site’s clearance by police on Tuesday.
In May, the protesters clashed with police as some attempted to storm the facility, which is Tesla’s only European gigafactory and employs around 12,000 staff.
In the past, protesters have also disrupted the surrounding area by blocking a nearby motorway and interrupting the rail service by sitting on the tracks.
