Alere Inc. said it will file its annual report late again this year as the company tries to sort out an accounting mess in Asia.

Amanda Pedersen

Alere Inc. can't seem to catch a break. The company filed for a 15-day extension for its annual report because it is trying to sort out inappropriate conduct at a subsidiary in South Korea that could shift the timing of some revenue transactions in 2013, 2014, 2015, and the first three quarters of 2016.

According to the SEC filing, the company's subsidiary, Standard Diagnostics Inc., made some misstatements regarding revenue recognition at its Korean and Japanese locations. The company said it expects to adjust its revenue for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 by up to $5 million each. The company's fiscal year 2015 revenue will decrease by $5 million to $10 million while revenue for the first nine months of fiscal year 2016 will increase by $5 million to $10 million.

Alere said the misstatements will not impact the total amount of revenue reported related to any transaction, but that it will cause a shift in revenue between accounting periods. The company said it is also evaluating fiscal years 2011 and 2012 in case the same type of misstatements occured then too.

The Waltham, MA-based company said it will not report its fourth quarter or full year 2016 financial results funtil it is ready to file its annual report on Form 10-K.

This latest snafu could make a bad situation worse as the company fights to be acquired by Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories. Abbott agreed to buy Alere for $56 a share in January 2016, but a series of damaging business developments curbed Abbott's enthusiasm for Alere.

Abbott has pulled out all the stops to nix the $5.8 billion deal, but Alere has refused to give up. Last month, after the European Commission cleared the acquisition, Alere CEO Namal Nawana told investors he was "highly conident" the merger would close according to the terms of the agreement that was signed a year ago.

Amanda Pedersen is Qmed's news editor. Contact her at [email protected].

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