Tadpole Technology Plc, Cambridge yesterday revealed the full horrors that drove its share price down so hard and fast that trading had to be suspended – and the news was sufficiently discouraging that when trading in the shares reopened yesterday, they kept right on plunging, hitting 75 pence, off 59 pence from the pre-suspension price. The company also faces a London Stock Exchange investigation into trading of its shares prior to their suspension, but the company did not do its credibility any good with its ill-advised statement that it knew of no reason for the plunging share price. The first half loss came to ú5.94m, much worse than expected, but exacerbated by ú2m of exceptional charges to cover inventory provisions and lay-off costs. The company said it was ending manufacture of its PowerPC-based portable computer, sold by IBM Corp as the RS/6000 N40, that Geoff Burr, board director in charge of Tadpole Technology Inc, had resigned, and that it is laying off 30 of its 70 employees in the US, which accounts for 70% of Tadpole’s sales.Separately, Tadpole announced in the US that it is cutting the price of the Pentium-based P1000 notebook by 13% to $6,500 with 8Mb and a 340Mb disk.
