When the market started to crap the bed last year, hundreds of public companies were faced with the prospect of delisting due to their low share prices and market caps.

Because of the unusual nature of the circumstances -- and the fact that they had much bigger problems to devote resources to -- the NYSE and Nasdaq elected not to enforce minimum share price requirements temporarily. But now that the market has rallied, what about companies that haven't been able to get their share prices back up a bit?

Late Thursday Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) disclosed it had received a notice from the Nasdaq stock exchange on Tuesday that its share price has closed below $1 for 30 consecutive days, and is therefore not in compliance with the exchange rules. This means it could possibly be delisted.

Sirius has until March 15, 2010, to regain compliance with the minimum bid price rule, meaning its stock has to close at or above $1 for 10 consecutive business days.

The Consumerist, a website published by the parent of Consumer Reports, has a potential lead on an alleged development at Borders Group (NYSE: BGP). Forgive all the wishy-washy verbiage; nothing is confirmed yet. An individual identifying him/herself as a Borders employee informed the website that the chain is severely paring down its CD and DVD sections, leaving only top sellers and reducing the prices of those.

Said alleged employee also encourages shoppers to wait for deep-discount sales of remaining digital inventory in the coming weeks.

On one hand (or on many hands), this makes sense. The advent of MP3 technology, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), and file-sharing services have seen bigger and better CD/DVD outlets (e.g. Tower Records - SOB!) go belly up, so why wouldn't Borders focus all of its energy on its more popular books line?

The New York Stock Exchange has told Nortel (NYSE: NT) that it may face being delisted. According to The Wall Street Journal, the telecom equipment firm will get kicked out "if it cannot bring its share price above the required $1 minimum in the next six months."

Delisting has a lot of problems beyond humiliation. Companies traded on the pink sheets or bulletin board cannot be held by most institutional investors. Stocks that trade in the pennies often face wild price swings as day traders bounce them around.

Who would have thought it would come to this? Many of America's most famous public companies could be up against being booted from the two major stock markets. The list is very long and it includes Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI), Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM), Ford (NYSE: F) and AIG (NYSE: AIG). The first two have already been below $1 for a fairly long period. AIG and Ford have gotten close.

What can be done? The current market drop, seen through the eyes of the exchanges, is an emergency. NYSE and NASDAQ face losing some of their signature listings, but they have an option. They could simply suspend some of their rules and allow companies to stay listed even if they do not meet the current requirements. The modification could be set for a year, at least initially.

If the exchanges alter the rule to keep some of their listed companies, who gets hurt? Probably no one. Rather, the firms in trouble and their shareholders get helped.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) said today that it received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), warning that the mortgage firm could be delisted due to its rock-bottom share price. FRE has been trading below $1 for more than 30 days now, and must notify the exchange by December 2 whether it intends to rectify the problem.

If Freddie does decide to meet the NYSE's listing requirements, it will have until mid-May to address the share-price issue; if not, its common stock and preferred stock are subject to suspension and delisting. In a statement, Freddie Mac said it's "currently working with its conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to explore options relating to this deficiency and has not yet determined its response."

Earlier this week, Freddie's sister Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) received an identical warning from the NYSE. The troubled siblings hit the headlines for somewhat more respectable reasons earlier this morning, when the pair announced they would temporarily halt foreclosures during the holiday season.

After opening broadly higher this morning, FRE has fallen to a 6% loss at 46 cents per share. Sibling Fannie is faring better today; that stock is up roughly 9% at last check -- though today's gain takes the per-share price only as high as 36 cents.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.

There are a number of reasons that a company can be delisted from the Nasdaq. One is failure to maintain a share price above $1. A firm's shares cannot close below $1 for 30 days without a warning. That gives the member company time to "cure" the problem.

Sometimes, the problem cannot be "cured." Most recently that happened to newspaper chain Journal Register, which faced similar rules on the NYSE where it had been traded. It lost its listing.

Shares of Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) closed at 98 cents Wednesday and traded as low as 90 cents. The market does not like the company's new plans to cut costs. Even worse, it does not like the firm's forecast that growth may slow considerably next year.

The future of Sirius is still in doubt. Before the merger, each company had over $1 billion in debt and neither had ever had an operating profit. Refinancing the bonds of the new Sirius XM may be very difficult during the current credit crunch.

It would not be a huge shock to see the satellite radio company go into Chapter 11 next year. It might be able to use that to restructure its balance sheet just as many airlines have done in the past.

At this early stage, the merger is a flop and it does not look like that will change.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

If you have an ADR for Japanese electronics giant NEC, save it as a collectible. In light of the SEC's recent decision to revoke NEC's securities registration in the U.S., there will not be any more of those ADRs. NEC ran afoul of U.S. listing requirements when it failed to file annual reports for 2006 and 2007, and improperly booked revenues for 2000-2006. NEC was also the victim of internal fraud when at least 10 emplyees, over a period of several years, booked millions of dollars worth of fraudulent transactions. NEC had no procedures in place to authenticate or track these transactions.

To be fair to NEC, recognizing software sales revenue up front in complicated under GAAP SOP 97-2, particularly when the software is sold as part of a service package that also includes hardware and/or software maintenance. But NEC was responsible for taking steps to see it was not being robbed blind from within. NEC was delisted from active trading on Nasdaq in November 2007. NEC neither accepted nor disputed the SEC decision. The company has also been under investigation by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau. NEC states it has constructed sufficient internal controls to cut back on the potential for internal fraud. Too little, too late. The stock now trades on the pink sheets.

Italian clothing retailer Benetton Group (NYSE: BNG) gained more than 8% yesterday, closing up $2.58 at $33.23 on news that Deutsche Bank upped BNG to Buy. While good news, this is not the biggest Benetton news. The Board of Directors of the company recently announced the company will voluntarily deregister and delist from the NYSE and will no longer offer American Depositary Shares (ADS) on the NYSE. The decision is not an indication that Benetton Group, known as much for its provocative advertising as for its fashions, is in any financial trouble. Far from it. The company recently issued first-half 2007 results that were positive all the way through the numbers. Revenues are up 10%, volume of sales is up 13% to 74 million garments. The company has benefited from a good product mix in its stores and the dollar's continued weakness against the euro.

What drove Benetton's Board of Directors to deregister and delist was the fact that the company simply does not do enough business in ADS to justify the expense of keeping a full set of books in compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As Italian stock exchanges, particularly Milan, have grown more international in their offerings, American shareholders have begun to trade directly rather than through ADS. Benetton indicated it will still provide financial information and press releases in English, but will keep its books according to international standards.

Benetton senior management does not think delisting from the NYSE will have any adverse impact on the company's growth or earnings, which it forecasts to be in the 7-9% range.

The most troublesome aspect of Benetton's decision to delist may be the idea that foreign companies feel they do not need access to U.S. equity markets, still the biggest in the world. Perhaps the trading floor is leveling internationally. How many other foreign-registered companies are going to take a look at Benetton's decision and begin to do their own cost/benefit analysis on continued NYSE or Nasdaq listings?

Apparently there is some love for Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) from NASDAQ after all. Just recently, the exchange told the world's second-largest computer maker to get its act together or face a delisting from the exchange. It was the third time in two years that Dell had been warned by the exchange where its public shares are traded. With the Round Rock, Texas, company still in the middle or at the end (we hope) of an internal and external accounting irregularity investigation, the computer maker has not posted official financial reports in what seems like ages.

Well, the good ol' NASDAQ has extended Dell's listing on the exchange for two more weeks from yesterday, and in what seems like normal procedure by now, the company again asked for more time to finish delinquent financial reports. How long is this going to take? Visions of Enron start floating in my head when it takes a year or more to get correct financial reports out the door. That, or Dell hired a forensic accounting team of monkeys to perform its investigation.

Dell's shares will be listed until July 16, according to NASDAQ officials. We'll see what kind of extension Dell gets when that date rolls around in a few weeks. Perhaps sometime in 2009 we will see audited financial statements from Dell? I'm not holding my breath, but if you hold Dell shares, you've probably run out of air by now.

Last Friday the NASDAQ stated that it wouldn't delist Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), pending a timely 10Q filing within the next two months. A number of observers had worried that Apple would be delisted as a result of the backdated stock options scandal. Being delisted would have had a deeply negative effect on the stock, even despite the great string of news the companies has had of late related to sales.

No doubt Apple's success of late lead to the NASDAQ's unwillingness to delist. Apple is a bit of a star company. It's much easier to kick a company once it is down, but while there is still some shine the NASDAQ will keep a wait and see attitude going on.

Apple ended the day up a single penny or 0.01%, to finish at $80.42.

Tobias Buckell is an author, freelancer, and professional blogger. He does not currently own Apple stock.

Apple ended the day up 29 cents to finish at $63.94, despite widespread worries about Apple's worries with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Due to its investigation on share options, Apple is trying to figure out how to restate its third quarter financial report, and the Nasdaq threatened to delist Apple if doesn't adhere to reporting guidelines.

While no one expects Apple to get delisted, people are watching carefully. Those less in the loop are worried for Apple, but many are realizing that Apple will probably be just the first of many companies that will be going through painful periods like this as stock option readjustments hit the other 80+ companies that were fingered by the SEC besides Apple.