Mizuho: Key auditor Ernst & Young resigns, the Audit Committee and the Board lose credibility, independent of the CEO. Ernst & Young initially expressed concerns about SMCI's financial reporting internal controls in July 2024, subsequently the Board appointed a special committee (Cooley and Secretariat Advisors law firms) to investigate, the investigation is still ongoing. This is Ernst & Young's first audit of SMCI since being engaged on March 15, 2023. On October 24, 2024, Ernst & Young sent a resignation letter to SMCI. November 16 is now a risk and may be challenging, and it is the deadline with Nasdaq. SMCI has 60 days, that is, until November 16 (starting from receiving the non-compliant letter LINK on September 17), to submit a plan to Nasdaq to regain compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements. We believe without a chief auditor, Nasdaq delisting risk will increase (this is the second time in the past 5 years such a situation has arisen). If Nasdaq approves SMCI's plan, SMCI will have up to 180 days post-10-K deadline (around February 25, 2025) to resume compliance and submit 10-K. The lack of an auditor and time constraints increase the delisting risk, which favors competitor Dell. We...