So far, however, Nasdaq appears to be talking loudly but not wielding the big stick. No company has been known to be delisted from the exchange as a result of a filing delay stemming from the investigation.

Several months of mounting scrutiny of technology companies' practices in backdating stock options grants culminated last week with the Justice Department indicting executives at Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and Converse Technology Inc. with securities fraud. For many companies, the more immediate concern is trying to maintain their listing status on the Nasdaq exchange, where many technology shares are traded.

Programmable logic supplier QuickLogic Corp. is the latest to incur Nasdaq's wrath. On Wednesday (Aug. 16), it received a letter from Nasdaq citing noncompliance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(14) for failing to file its quarterly Form 10-Q reports for the fiscal quarter ended July 2. Quick Logic faces its common stock delisted from the Nasdaq Global Market unless it requests a hearing before a Nasdaq listing qualifications panel.

QuickLogic (Sunnyvale, Calif.) announced July 26 that the Audit Committee of its Board of Directors had asked the company to initiate a review of its stock option practices.

QuickLogic joins semiconductor suppliers Zoran Corp., Applied Micro Circuits Corp., Microtune Inc.; assembly and test services supplier Amkor Technology Inc.; and electronic manufacturing services provider Sanmina-SCI Corp., as a few of the many companies receiving delisting notifications from Nasdaq.

The companies have all announced they have delayed 10-Q filings because they have not completed stock options investigations, and have all requested hearings from Nasdaq to remain listed on the exchange.

In the case of Amkor, the 10-Q filing delay has also put the financially-troubled company in alleged default under the terms of contracts governing each of a series of loan notes with due dates ranging from 2007 to 2016.

Given the complexity of many of the investigations and the fact that so many technology companies, including leaders like Apple, have come under scrutiny for their stock options practices, Nasdaq has so far been in a forgiving mood, routinely granting requests for hearings and keeping companies listed on the exchange.

For the foreseeable future, it appears Nasdaq will continue to give companies a long leash to get their financial houses in order rather than create massive upheaval on the exchange.