Transmeta announced a reverse stock split in order to lift its stock above the critical $1 mark. According to a press release the company’s board of directors approved a reverse split of Transmeta’s common stock at a ratio of one-for-20 shares, to take effect this Friday. Transmeta’s common stock will begin trading at that time under the symbol "TMTAD" for a period of 20 trading days. Thereafter, it will resume trading under the firm’s original symbol "TMTA."

The move will reduce the number of outstanding TMTA shares from about 200 million to 10 million.

Transmeta closed Wednesday trading at a share price of $0.48, which was down more than 15% from Tuesday. Transmeta’s stock had fallen below the $1 mark for the first time on January 18 of this year and briefly jumped above $1 on February 17. Since then, the stock has traded below this value. The share price recorded a high of $39.88 on December 4, 2000.