A LITTLE bit of stock-market history was made February 11 when Centennial Technologies, a high-flying maker of computer memory cards with $40 million in sales, fired its chief executive, Emanuel Pinez, and its finance officer, James Murphy. At the same time, Centennial announced it was launching an inquiry into the accuracy of its financial statements, which were suddenly in doubt.
What made history about the Centennial announcement? Few on Wall Street could recall another time when so hot and widely held a stock fell to earth quite so quickly and resoundingly. Centennial was no obscure over-the-counter stock. Its shares were held by many mutual funds and professional money managers. In 1996, after the company’s stock price quintupled, it earned the right to be called the top-performing stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
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