Phoenix Technologies Ltd is in worse trouble than it had hitherto suggested, and yesterday it announced that it expects to report a substantial loss for its fourth quarter to September 30, leading to a loss for the full year, on turnover up on what it recorded a year ago – but with sales for the fourth quarter significantly down on the year-ago figure. The company confirmed that it is terminating its embryonic business of doing implementations of Unix for Sparc-based workstations (CI No 1,255), but says that demand for its core OEM products remains strong. We have increased our reserves in the OEM product lines as well as reduced our commitments and investments in the workstation market, writing off or down several existing contracts, said interim chief executive Ted Joseph. We have also reduced our exposure in the packaged goods business by requiring product returns on several large orders where extended collectability was not reasonably assured, he said, adding Our commitment going forward is to run this company within its ability to generate cash. By using cash flow as the principal indicator of resorts on those products of greatest importance and urgency to our customers. The company says it has improved cash flow by nearly $8m since last quarter, and 95 people have left the company since May, bringing employment down to 320, and the Norwood, Massachusetts firm looks to return to profits in the second half of next fiscal. It will maintain a high level of investment in its personal computer system software building blocks, working on both Micro Channel and EISA buses for 32-bit systems.
