In a dramatic change of strategy Baltimore announced this morning it has left the security software business and will now concentrate on the clean energy market.
The former stock market darling has fallen on hard times since the technology crash which forced it to sell its software business.
Baltimore's chairman, Mr Bijan Khezri, said the clean energy market provides the best fit for Baltimore's structure and asset base and should deliver "sustained and profitable growth" for shareholders.
The company also announced a new management team which will be led by Mr David Weaver, a former senior executive with BP and CMS Energy.
Baltimore has been under pressure from a top investor to maximise returns from the cash pile it holds since it sold off all its trading operations last year, including its core Internet encryption technology.
Shares in Baltimore were trading down almost nine per cent at 41 pence in London this morning. At the height of the Internet bubble, Baltimore was worth £5.5 billion just £22 million - just short of the sum total of its cash.
The company reported a year-end cash balance of £24.7 million and pre-tax profit of £7.3 million for 2003, compared with a £65.3 million loss the previous year.
Revenue fell 48 per cent to £18.2 millionas it disposed of the trading operations.
Its biggest current shareholder, Bermuda-based Acquisitor Holdings, said last week it wanted the entire board removed and requested an extraordinary meeting of shareholders.
The proposals for the new company and board will be put to shareholders at a special meeting, possibly to be combined with the annual meeting on May 5th.