Here is a piece of a release put out by Act Teleconferencing. Things aren’t looking good (chart). About a month ago the company announced financing to raise 8 million dollars. The conferencing market in general is doing well and the company recently announced financing funded through share sales. Webex is the market leader and their chart doesn’t look bad. Granted it isn’t great but they increased the stock price a bit over the past year. Perhaps 15% or so.

NASDAQ STAYS ACT TELECONFERENCING’S STOCK DELISTING Appeal hearing set for October 6, 2005

DENVER – ACT Teleconferencing, Inc. (Nasdaq ACTT), an independent worldwide provider of audio, video and web-based conferencing products and services, today announced that its hearing before a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel concerning compliance with Nasdaq listing criteria is set for October 6, 2005. Until a determination is made by the Panel, the delisting of ACT’s common stock has been stayed, and it will continue to trade on the Nasdaq National Market. .

ACT Chief Executive Officer Gene Warren stated, "We are looking forward to meeting with Nasdaq to bring them current on our operating plan and capital structure, and to demonstrate our compliance with their requirements. We have a unique situation and we are hopeful that they will be supportive, after reviewing our actions and considering our future plans. There are alternatives to our current listing, but we think we belong where we are now."

My suggestion for Act are:

Change the name to Act Conferencing or Act WebConferencing – the reasons are obvious.

Hire a better PR team. The most PR the company does is to put out negative press releases. How many companies are going to buy service from this company when all the news is bad?

Hire a marketing department. For a publicly traded company in conferencing – a market that should be booming when gas prices increase, what is up? These guys should be raking in the dollars hand over fist. For an early player in the market, they certainly squandered their lead.

Get into VoIP. If they are into VoIP it is a wonderful secret they are keeping to themselves. Here is an article I wrote over a year ago about conferencing over IP. What is wrong with Act? I have to assume management is clueless about technology, marketing and PR. Seems like they need a fresh management team. Perhaps they can hire the ex-Vonage team once the Vonage IPO is complete.

Of course they can just do nothing and let the stock go to zero.