$17 million. In addition the Company reported that company CFO Rick Bonick had left earlier in January. It was not officially announced a fact that CNN Money says "roiled the already active rumour mill about accounting irregularities. The company also reported it would restate quarterly revenues in 1999 as some markets did not comply with Cumulus' revenue recognition policies and booked some advertising contracts for their full value rather than recognizing revenue as the ads aired. As a result, class-action lawsuits were filed against Cumulus charging the company with artificially inflating revenue and profit in 1999. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company's auditors resigned in April citing material weaknesses in the Cumulus' financial controls arising from the possible revenue restatements. Meanwhile, Dickey had taken over day-to-day station operations from Bungeroth who resigned in mid January. During this same period Weening got into a dispute with the SEC over his proposal to reverse some of his and Dickey's 1999 compensation to help offset the earnings miss. While the proposal was never implemented, the SEC maintained it would have amounted to earnings management and was therefore an infraction. Weening finally agreed to pay a fine of $75,000 without conceding wrongdoing to settle the matter in 2003. As the dust began to settle in April 2000 the company issued revised annual 10K reports for 1998 and 1999 that showed minor variations in quarterly revenue and adjusted net loss for 1999 from $20.8 million to $13.6 million and net loss for 1998 was restated from $13.7 million to $8 million, after the company found a $4.9 million tax benefit that had been under-reported. The restatement as it turns out had no material impact on the financials but in the context of the dot-com bust hysteria rumours of accounting irregularities drove a significant decrease in share price which threatened the company's ability to finance pending acquisitions. Internet debate Since November 1998 the company had been developing an internet platform for classified employment advertising. The new system would operate in tandem with the radio station cluster in each market and offer employers the chance to post available positions on the web and promote their company and the position on the radio stations. At the time of the dot-com bust the system was in beta test in two markets. One of the short-lived but important impacts of the dot-com bubble burst was a loss of confidence that the promise of