NEW YORK, Oct. 16 – Bioinformatics company InforMax has slashed its third-quarter revenue forecast and indicated that its losses for the period would be greater than expected as a result purchasing delays triggered by a downturn in the overall economy.
After the close of trading on Monday, InforMax, of Bethesda, Md., said it expected to post revenues of $4.7 million in the third quarter, compared with an August forecast that anticipated revenues of $8.4 million for the quarter. The revised figure is also 4 percent below the company’s third-quarter 2000 revenues, which totaled $4.9 million. Total bookings are expected to fall 27 percent to $3.3 million in the quarter.
As a result of the revenue shortfall, InforMax is now estimating a net loss of between 21 cents and 22 cents per share, compared with previous expectations for net losses of 13 cents to 15 cents a share. Net losses in the year-ago quarter totaled 25 cents a share.
The company will announce its third-quarter results on Oct. 31.
"Most of the revenue shortfall can be attributed to customers delaying or otherwise not making purchasing decisions for both our Vector desktop and GenoMax enterprise applications,” CEO Alex Titomirov said in a statement.
“While we are cautious about the impact of the weaker economy on our software sales in the near-term, we remain very optimistic about the long-term demand for bioinformatics software and services and InforMax's prospects for solidifying our leadership position,” he added.
On a positive note, InforMax said that cost-cutting measures had helped partially to offset the revenue shortfall. The company said these efforts had helped to stem the losses by five cents a share.
InforMax, which has a cash balance of $65 million, expects to reach profitability by the fourth quarter of next year.