In the year to December 31, the net loss was 64.7m pounds ($100.9m), down from a loss of 652.8m pounds ($1bn) on revenue 50.2% lower at 35m pounds ($54.6m). As part of its reorganization, non-core assets were sold off and the company said that, on the basis of continuing operations, revenue fell 21.2% to 26.5m pounds ($41.3m).
Chief executive Bijan Khezri said the challenge for the company is to grow revenue rather than drive profitability through cost reduction. But he cautioned that the overall market environment remains uncertain, difficult to predict and slow-moving, causing a lengthening of the sales cycle.
A major weakness of the company is its dependency on the EMEA region, which accounts for 74% of sales for its continuing operations, while Asia-Pacific accounts for 8% and the US 18%. Baltimore said that the reduction of management layers in its regional operations has actually strengthened its position in those markets.
It said that despite the restructuring process, it has not lost any major customers and has a renewal rate of more than 80% for support contracts. While it expects the overall IT environment to remain sluggish throughout 2003, it believes that the security part of IT budgets will grow. Public sector demand will be critical, because the private sector environment will remain very challenging.
Source: Computerwire
