Syquest Technology Inc is attributing its poor financial results this year to a drastic restructuring program it is implementing in an attempt to bring the company back to profitability. Syquest reported losses of $68.7m for the year to September 30 on revenues that dropped 38.8% to $122.7m (CI No 3,281). The company has now replaced just about all of its key executives, including the chairman, chief executive officer, chief financial officer and vice presidents of sales and marketing, and is looking to move away from a company dictated by technology to one that is customer driven. Part of those changes have seen recent price cuts of 30 to 40% (CI No 3,166) which has resulted in a drop in revenues of the company’s flagship SyJet and EZFlyer products. But new executive vice president of sales Gary Jones says unit shipments are continuing to rise and the company will be able to turn into profit at some point next year. Syquest is set to employ new staff, and yesterday launched a new $200 1Gb removable cartridge system. Jones says the company got into trouble because it failed to follow market trends and became somewhat lazy. It plans to spend more money on sales and marketing to raise its profile.
