Dutch enterprise resource planning software vendor Baan Company NV is expected to report its fifth consecutive quarterly loss when it reveals its third quarter figures on Thursday. However, the deficit is expected to be far smaller than the same period last year.
Analysts polled by Reuters forecast a net loss of $5.5m with a range of $8.2m to $1.4m, well below the $31.7m loss in last year’s third quarter. Baan’s figures will come a day after those for industry leader SAP AG, which last week issued a profit warning after scaling down its forecast between 20% and 25% revenue growth this year to 15% to 20% (CI No 3,768).
After sharply cutting back costs, Baan has been optimistic of a turnaround. CEO Mary Coleman predicted last month that the company would return to profit in the second half of this year (CI No 3,753). She said the company was seeing the return of high dollar contracts from large enterprises.
