What happened
Shares of LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN) are tumbling today, down by 14.2% as of 11:18 a.m. ET, after the company announced it was rescheduling its fourth-quarter earnings release.
The customer engagement software provider had said two weeks ago it would be releasing its financial results on March 1, but now the day before it was supposed to do so, it has filed an extension with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to delay its 10-K report until March 16, at which time it will issue its earnings and hold a video webcast of the conference call.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
LivePerson said the reason for the delay was so it could "perform additional review and testing of revenue recognition" related to its acquisition of precision healthcare company WildHealth for $22 million last year. It had canceled a program WildHealth offered because Medicare suspended payments for it pending a government review.
Investors tend not to like when companies delay filing their financial reports because it often signals deeper problems at the business, though that does not seem to be the case here. However, LivePerson did not detail which program it canceled or when Medicare suspended payments for it.
Now what
LivePerson noted that if it files its 10-K within the 15-day grace period allowed, which its extension would be within, then the SEC will still deem the filing to be "timely."
Companies are required to be timely, and willfully not filing forms could lead to enforcement, though it's rare businesses that are overdue see any substantial penalties for being so.
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