Investors: Press Release
GeckoSystems' CEO Reports Progress on Trading Symbol Change
CONYERS, Ga., Oct. 21, 2010 -- GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (PINKSHEETS: GCKO) -- announced today that they have received an update regarding their formal request to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to change their trading symbol to one more representative of their company's strategic focus and operations.
GeckoSystems is a dynamic leader in the emerging mobile robotics industry revolutionizing their development and usage with "Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security and Service™."
Issuer requested symbol changes are now permissible since the U.S. regulatory authority, FINRA, updated and relaxed their regulations regarding symbol changes, stock splits, etc. as of Sept. 27, 2010. This is per their Rule 6490 and SEA Rule 106-17 regarding "Issuer Company Related Action Notification." Now Over The Counter (OTC) publicly traded companies may voluntarily change their trading symbols in an efficient and timely manner.
GeckoSystems' CEO, Martin Spencer, today stated, "Late last week, the Company completed and filed the required FINRA application and subsequently submitted the fees for the symbol change request from 'GCKO' to 'GSYS' as our first choice. We have heard from the FINRA reviewer of our application and their need for verification not only that the present officers were duly nominated and elected, but also that their predecessors (if any) have resigned in an appropriately legal and sufficient manner. We will be responding to this need for this additional vetting forthwith as it is an essentially administrative task due to the requested corporate documents being readily available."
Mr. Spencer further commented that FINRA may, at its sole discretion, allocate an alternative symbol, but is confident FINRA will accommodate the company's request if there are no conflicting requests in process. The application suggests that the process takes in the range of three (3) to five (5) days from time of application to become effective. "We are very pleased, if not thrilled, with FINRA's decision to allow appropriate trading symbols to be more representative of the company's name and business focus," continued Spencer.
Two weeks ago, on the same date, GeckoSystems management secured two lists from Broadridge and one from The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). The two Broadridge lists, one a NOBO and the other a quasi-OBO (with no individual beneficial owners revealed) quantify total GCKO inventory per broker. Unless naked shorting is occurring, the quantities of stock held by the brokerages should be the same, or nearly so, from both of Broadridge's "NOBO" and "quasi-OBO" lists, and DTCC's "SPR" list. Since both of Broadridge's lists agree, this may indicate there are essentially no objecting beneficial owners (NOBO) to being identified.
DTCC, through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities.
Broadridge provides mission-critical products and services for securities processing, clearing/outsourcing, and investor communication. They can, however, provide Issuers with OBO information in reference to the number of shareholders and the total share amount they hold. Broadridge is not permitted to disclose those shareholders --individually-- that are objecting beneficial owners. Hence they aggregate them in a second quasi-OBO list.
The top five (5) brokerages/clearing houses with greatest GCKO share count discrepancies between Broadridge's NOBO and summarized "OBO" lists and the DTCC SPR list on Oct. 6 are listed below in the order of their magnitude:
Brown Brothers/Harriman:
Broadridge OBO list: 500,000 GCKO shares
DTCC SPR list: 3,868,050 GCKO shares
Hence an unexplained difference of 3,368,057 GCKO shares or 674% more reported by DTCC than Broadridge.
TD Ameritrade:
Broadridge OBO list: 19,410,623 GCKO shares
DTCC SPR list: 21,513,546 GCKO shares
Hence an unexplained difference of 2,102,923 GCKO shares or 11% more reported by DTCC than Broadridge.
USAA Brokerage Services:
Broadridge OBO list: 2,043,226 GCKO shares
DTCC SPR list: 2,466,069 GCKO shares
Hence an unexplained difference of 422,843 GCKO shares or 21% more reported by DTCC than Broadridge.
National Financial Services:
Broadridge OBO list: 11,830,791 GCKO shares
DTCC SPR list: 12,243,791 GCKO shares
Hence an unexplained difference of 413,000 GCKO shares or 3% more reported by DTCC than Broadridge.
TD Waterhouse:
Broadridge OBO list: 797,490 GCKO shares
DTCC SPR list: 1,062,490 GCKO shares
Hence an unexplained difference of 265,000 GCKO shares or 33% more reported by DTCC than Broadridge.
In aggregate, the Broadridge and DTCC lists differ by a total of 11,033,022 shares. The top five brokerage firms and clearing houses' discrepancies account for 59.6% (6,571,823 shares) of the GCKO share count total discrepancy in the reports from Broadridge and DTCC to GeckoSystems. This grand total may well be the factual reality of the amount of naked shorting of GCKO stock. All other thiry-three (33) brokerage and/or clearing houses reported the exact same GCKO share counts, or less than 1% discrepancy, between Broadridge and DTCC.
Some GCKO investors may wish to notify their broker and/or their clearing house to place their GCKO stock on their "no loan" list to coerce their brokerage into not using their personally held GCKO shares for any shorting. This may be especially prudent if your stock is being held by any of the less rigorously compliant brokerages and/or clearing houses revealed in the preceding.
Due to the need for equity financing for high growth firms, GeckoSystems has worked for over ten years to become fully reporting as soon as financially viable. In fact, the Company has been successfully audited twice, for two year periods each, and found to be fully compliant under thorough outside financial audits prepared by SEC certified CPA firms with the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB's) generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
"Due to the level of risk inherent in high tech, emerging market Development Stage firms such as ours, especially during this Great Recession, we understand clearly that only equity (not debt) instruments can provide sufficient return on investment (ROI) for investors to assume the risk of purchasing any high tech, emerging market stock such as GCKO stock. Hence our long time efforts in this regard, and determination to continue our move upward to not only a more pronounced domestic stock exchange, but also those with international reach, such as OTCQX," observed Spencer.
GeckoSystems received their Pink Sheet trading symbol, GCKO, from FINRA as a result of satisfying all their due diligence requirements from the filing of a Form 15c2-11. The Company is not a "shell company" and has no unaccounted for, or otherwise missing, shares outstanding and issued. "We worked for nearly a year in preparing our initial 15c2-11 submission to, and addressing the comments of, FINRA prior to their issuance of our trading symbol, GCKO. We received our trading symbol, GCKO, from FINRA in September of 2007. In order to enable electronic trading we became DTC eligible in January of 2008. As a DRS Participant, the ability to trade GCKO stock electronically is even more streamlined, efficient, transparent, and reliable," stated Spencer.
"We will continue to do everything in our power to be completely, but prudently, transparent with our shareholders. We wish to assure our stockholders that this greater efficiency in the marketplace for our stock will further enhance the value and liquidity of GCKO stock and increase the ROI for them as we continue in our efforts to move upward to more pronounced domestic and international stock exchanges. To date, we have presently submitted a request for symbol change and learned from FINRA of their need for additional corporate record copies to be provided to them. While the Company's management is seeking a symbol change due to better congruence with corporate and strategies, we nonetheless have been told that this symbol change will force a prompt naked short squeeze. As is prudent, we will continue to evaluate the dividend and forward stock split scenarios very carefully as to costs and efficacy as to how we may structure them and achieve the best ROI for our nearly 1400 shareholders, " concluded Spencer.