Ignite’s Fizzled Fortunes Get It Delisted From Nasdaq

IRVINE — Ignite Inc., the troubled computer game maker previously known as Graphix Zone, said Wednesday its stock will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq stock market.

The small Irvine-based company will be delisted after today. Investors may be able to trade shares on Nasdaq’s over-the-counter bulletin board or in the National Quotation Bureau “pink sheets,” but Ignite said it could make no assurances that will be possible.

The company’s shares had traded as high as $8.25 in the past year, but recently have been stuck well below the $1 threshold for Nasdaq listing. The stock fell from 18.75 cents per share to 6.25 cents per share on Wednesday’s news.

Ignite lost millions of dollars on CD-ROMs that blend sound, text and pictures of musicians like Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana and Prince. As of March 31, $1.26 million of its $1.84 million in inventory was classified as excess or obsolete.

Since April, Ignite has eliminated dozens of jobs and now has just 15 employees. It has closed a Los Angeles office and is focused on computer games derived from TV game shows.

During the January-March quarter, the third in its fiscal year, Ignite lost $7 million, or 67 cents per share, on revenue of $2.09 million. For the nine months, losses totaled $9.59 million, or 91 cents per share, on $7.14 million in revenue.

The company said Wednesday that it continues to consider outside funding sources to help it reorganize.

Since last September it has raised $2.36 million through private stock offerings and received a $3.7 million non-bank loan. In its latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ignite said it is in default on that loan.

Calls to Ignite’s chief executive, David Hirschorn, went unreturned Wednesday.