Baltimore considers more job cuts

Internet security group Baltimore Technologies today pledged to cut more jobs after pre-tax losses narrowed sharply in the wake of a headcount purge.

The company said employee numbers stood at 255 in June, compared with 422 a year earlier.

That helped reduce pre-tax losses in the period to £2.2m (€3.12m) from £9.9m (€14.05m) last year.

Baltimore has been selling off business units and shedding jobs to reduce the amount of cash its operations soak up as it attempts to revitalise its core operations.

Cash balances reduced in line with expectations to £14.6m (€20.7m) compared with £23.1m (€32.8m) in 2002, with further funds set to come from more disposals.

Chief executive Bijan Khezri said: “Whilst our cash balance provides us with a high level of flexibility we will not tolerate any operational cash burn beyond the end of the year.

“Therefore, we will implement a further reduction in headcount throughout our worldwide operations.”

The company would not provide further details of the planned cuts.

In March it had around 70 employees in Ireland, 70 spread between its two UK bases, with the rest situated in Canada, the US and Hong Kong.

Earlier this year Baltimore hung a for sale sign over the whole company but it failed to attract an appropriate offer.

Despite the setback, Baltimore said some interest had been shown in some of its operations which led to the sale of three divisions including SelectAccess.

The earlier cuts were achieved through a mix of redundancies and asset disposals, including the sale of its hardware business to AEP Systems in September.

At the same time as cutting costs, Baltimore said it had won major contracts including with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, the government of Finland and the Hong Kong Post Office.

Comparison with earlier figures is difficult due to the disposals but Baltimore said revenues for continuing operations in the first half were £9.3m compared with £13.2m in 2002.