Control Data Corp is now warning that it may report a loss for the fourth quarter that will about match the profit it made for the first nine months of 1988, leaving it at about break-even for the year. The Minneapolis mainframer says that its outlook for the year, particularly in the Computer Products division, has worsened even in the last few days – and that it had been planning for a very high volume of orders, shipments and revenues in the fourth quarter. Overall, it puts the shortfall down to continuing slippages in shipments and acceptances of equipment from its Computer Products division, notably start-up production delays for its new Cyber 960 mainframe, which has already been delayed by lateness in critical logic chips – although it notes that this represents business postponed rather than business lost. It is also experiencing greater even than anticipated weakness in its VTC Inc and Government Systems businesses. Analysts had been looking for 40 cents a share from the company in the fourth quarter, up from the $10.8m or 26 cents a share of a year ago. For the first nine months of 1988 it had net profits of $14.5m.
Content from our partners
