Nasdaq to relist Comverse on Friday

Comverse Technology Inc., which was battered by accounting scandals in the past decade, is taking another step toward redemption: The Nasdaq stock exchange has approved its application to list its shares.

Starting Friday Comverse, a business software maker, will be listed as CMVT on Nasdaq's global select market segment, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Delisted during a series of criminal and civil court cases, notably on charges it backdated options to enrich executives, Comverse has traded over the counter in recent years.

The re-listing "can help broaden our investor base and increase our corporate visibility," chief executive Charles Burdick said in a prepared statement. Comverse owns a majority share in Verint, of Melville, a publicly traded video analytics company.

Now based in Manhattan but with deep Long Island roots, Comverse in April avoided prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by agreeing to pay a $2.8 million penalty to two federal agencies, the Justice Department and the SEC.

The April settlement came in a case against Comverse centered on $536,000 in improper payments to officials of a Greek telecom company.

Long based in Woodbury, Comverse grew into a billion-dollar corporation specializing in software for voice communications.