The baltimore bear will bite again.....

Here is the Article in IC page 32
A little over 18 months ago, few companies were held in such high regard as Baltimore. With most companies expected to make the internet the hub of their daily operations, online security was among the hottest areas of software.

At is peak, the market valued Baltimore at £5 billion, despite it only making sales of £23m in previous year.

This year the company is expected to generate £70m, but a slowdown in corporate IT spending means this is short fo the £100m+ once anticipated.

THREE PROFIT WARNINGS do far this year have led to shake up both across the group (over half the workforce have gone) and at management level. CEO Bijan Kherri is the third man to take the helm this year.

Redundancy payments and asset write downs will contribute to expected lossed of more than £600m (0.6 billion)

Mr Khezri hopes that the cost cutting exercise will cut cash burn to £10m a quarter. But there is only £30m left.
Time is running out.
A rescue rights issue would not go down well and Baltimore's largest US rivals Entrust and Verisign are also struggling so a bid seems unlikely.

Baltimore's future survival is in doubt.

Page 32 Out for the COUNT IC 20 Dec 2001