ATM networking specialist Fore Systems Inc has said that its preliminary first quarter earnings will fall short of Wall Street estimates and below income from the same quarter last year, despite a rise in revenues. The company said it expects first quarter earnings to be $4.7 million to $6 million, or $0.05 to $0.06 a share. In last year’s first quarter, Fore earned $11.4 million, or 12 cents a share. Wall Street analysts had expected 8 cents a share. Fore said it estimates revenue for the quarter will be between $95 million and $97 million, compared with revenue of $83.4 million for the same quarter a year ago. The company said that first quarter results were hurt by slower growth in the networking industry, weakness in international markets, longer sales cycles for large enterprise networks and market confusion over competing networking technologies. Although we are disappointed that our first quarter revenue was lower than anticipated, we remain encouraged by the ongoing adoption of ATM as the strategic backbone solution for corporate and service provider networks, said Eric Cooper, Fore chairman and CEO, in a statement. We remain optimistic about the future. Fore is expected to release earnings July 22