When Borland International Inc reported its fourth-quarter and fiscal 1997 results on Tuesday, they were as bad as Wall Street expected, and then some. The Scotts Valley, California-based development tools company announced a fourth-quarter loss of $42.5m on revenue that plummeted 47% to $37.2m. The results include non-recurring and restructuring charges of $23.1m resulting from the company’s layoffs of 300 people, or 30% of its workforce, in February (CI No 3,105). Without the charges, the loss would have amounted to the equivalent of about $0.54 per share, when the First Call consensus assumed a loss of $0.49. The company said the quarterly results were consistent with their own expectations as it implements the restructuring that started with the layoffs and which it thinks will return them to profitability in 1998. Borland will announce a strategic plan for the future in July at its annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The company’s loss for fiscal 1997 amounted to a whopping $108m on revenue that slid 38% to $151.4m, compared to net income of $14.7m, or $0.40 per share for 1996. The year’s troubles can be partially attributed to the unfortunate acquisition of Open Enviromment Corp – the company it spun off last week (CI No 3,149) – and the assumption of $12.2m in losses that it incurred in the first two quarters.
