MAID Plc, which has been aggressively cutting out the dead wood from newly acquired Knight Ridder Information Inc, has seen a short term wobble in its sales growth. The on-line business information provider has reported third quarter net losses cut to 316,000 pounds from losses last time of 2.4m pounds on revenue that grew 42.3% to 7.4m pounds. But the growth in revenues was below expectations, something which chairman Michael Mander put down to pre-merger uncertainties in the marketplace. With the formation of the re-named Dialog Corporation Plc completed in November, Mander says business orders are picking up. The merger process has so far cost 330 jobs with a further 70 likely to follow. Mander acknowledged that the process was a painful one but stated that 70% of the proposed $35m of cost cuts had now been achieved. The board has also identified the divisions it needs to strip out from its acquisition, namely KRI’s document delivery business and the CARL library computer system. Mander says these are loss making ventures which don’t fit with the long term aims of the group. The company is now bracing itself for the cost of maintaining the $420m in finance it raised to complete the deal.
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