February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Those who hitched a ride on Baltimore Technologies at the height of its market success are now finding out the full meaning and cost of the global tech stock gloom.
With more bad news last week, the Internet security firm’s shares plunged to an all-time low.
Anyone who had bought 1,000 shares less than 18 months ago would have found their £15,000 investment was now only worth just over £170.
When the dot.bomb crisis arrived, appetites for tech stocks dried up. Baltimore fell out of the London FTSE 100 and the stock began a spectacular spiral downward.
Since the beginning of this year, the shares have fallen by over 90 percent.
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Baltimore, currently employing almost 1,200 workers around the world, warned that trading conditions were challenging and second quarter figures will be worse than expected.
CEO Fran Rooney said he would review new cuts that would go beyond the £35 million in savings the company announced in May. Since then 200 jobs have gone, with savings of £14 million.
Rooney told RTE, "What we are saying now is that those savings will be very significant. We are going to have a major re-structuring program."