Irish software firm Iona Technologies last night announced net losses of $400,000 (€371,000) for the first quarter of 1999, but a 20 per cent increase in turnover.
Shares in the company plummeted two weeks ago after it warned investors its profits for this quarter would be below expectations.
In an effort to limit the inevitable damage to its price, Iona at that time gave a narrow range of expected losses, predicting they would be between 3 cents and break-even per share.
The company said last night losses were 2 cents a share.
Revenue climbed to $21.2 million (€19.7 million), compared to $17.6 million for the same period last year. The net losses compared to earnings of $2 million for the first three months of 1998.
"These results do not reflect the level of performance I expect from Iona," said the company's chief executive, Dr Chris Horn.
"We are already putting in place the actions that will sharpen our execution and enable us to leverage the great market opportunities for our products and services."
Consistent with his remarks a fortnight ago, blaming the failure of Iona's sales team to close several large-scale deals, Dr Horn said the bad performance for the quarter reflected "executional issues around our rate of transition to an enterprise sales model".
Market demand and cost controls remained strong, he added.
After the profits warning, shares fell rapidly; in one day, from a starting price of more than $30, investors drove the price down to less than $15. But investors appear to have regained some confidence in the company over the past fortnight, and the share ended trading last night at $19.
Iona, with its headquarters in Dublin, makes middle-ware - programs that allow other software to work together. Last year, it reported record revenues of $84 million (€79 million), an increase of 72 per cent over 1997.
