By Joyce Kryszak
Coudersport, PA – Adelphia Communications has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional time to file its annual report.
The company wants to bring in outside auditors to review certain accounting matters related to their off-the-books debt.
The news sent Adelphia's stock down again Monday.
Shares fell another $1.78 Monday to $13.12. Added to the nearly thirty percent drop last week, the company's stock has lost about forty percent of its value since the troubling financial disclosures began unfolding.
The nation's sixth largest cable operator last Wednesday revealed $2.3 billion in off-balance-sheet debt, then on Thursday disclosed it may be liable for an additional $500 million in debt related to a spin-off company that filed bankruptcy.
Financial advisor Anthony Ogorek, with Ogorek Capital Management in Williamsville, said the stock could rebound if Adelphia has enough time to, "ride out the storm," and bolster investor confidence.
But he adds that any additional troubling financial disclosures will make a recovery very difficult.
He said these, and any matters of financial impropriety, will be revealed once the delayed annual report is filed.
Those answers are anxiously awaited, not only by investors, but by Buffalo city planners, who are banking on Adelphia's planned waterfront Operations Center to jump start the local economy.
Ogorek said that project, as well as the Sabres hockey franchise, could be in jeopardy if there is a take-over of Adelphia.