Baltimore Technologies will cut more jobs in an attempt to reach cash break-even before the end of the year, it said yesterday.

The firm, which has undergone a painful restructuring over the past two years, made the statement after posting an £8.5 million sterling (€12.1 million) loss for the six months to the end of June, down from £30.2 million in the same period last year.

The results for the first half of the year reflect the performance of Baltimore's continuing operations following the sale of several divisions in recent months.

Baltimore said it would reduce its investment in the British firm Clearswift over the next few months and would receive £4.5 million by the end of September for its outstanding equity stake.

Baltimore accumulated an 11 per cent stake in Clearswift when it sold its Content Technologies division to the firm last year for a consideration of £20.5 million. It said yesterday it would receive £300,000 worth of warrants from Clearswift that would give it the right to purchase this amount of shares, to retain an interest in the firm's potential.

Baltimore employs about 100 staff at its Dublin development centre and a further 155 staff at its headquarters in Britain and in several overseas locations. The company would give no indication of how many jobs would go. "It is impossible to speculate," said a Baltimore spokesman.

Baltimore, which was worth several billion pounds at the height of the technology boom, has shed more than 1,000 jobs in the past two years in an attempt to cut spiralling losses.

The company reported revenues worth £9.3 million for the first six months of 2003, down from £13.2 million in the same period last year.

This was below analysts' predictions and reflects slower-than-expected sales for Baltimore's core public key infrastructure technology products.

Baltimore's chairman, Mr Peter Morgan, said continued reduction of overheads and expenses meant the firm could report that cash burn and losses were reduced in line with expectations, despite the lower revenues. He said the shape and structure of the firm would continue to change over future months.

The amount of Baltimore's cash reserves that were used up in the first half of 2003 fell to £3.5 million, down from £9.4 million in the same period of 2002.

Baltimore has cash reserves worth £14.6 million and a further £15.9 million is expected from the recent sales of non-core divisions.