Microware System Inc’s fortunes continued on their steady downhill slide yesterday when the Des Moines, Iowa-based real- time operating systems company reported a third quarter net loss of $3.0m, up from $2.75m in the equivalent quarter last year. Revenues for the three months through to December were $3.7m, a marginal improvement from the sequential quarter but down 19% on last year’s sales. Operating losses will reach $3.4m, making this the ninth consecutive quarter of losses for Microware which blamed the shortfall on poor performance in North America during the quarter. While there were encouraging signs in the company’s operations in Europe and Japan, our performance in North America….was disappointing and below expectations, said Ken Kaplan, the company’s president and CEO in a prepared statement. This issue is receiving intensive managment attention. Although he didn’t give specific details, Kaplan said he hoped the situation would be improved over the coming quarters through the introduction of new products, additional sales channels through distributors and expanded marketing activities. Despite the negative impact on revenues from the Asian economic crisis, he said the company’s Japanese subsidiary had made several new customers while performance in Europe showed positive revenues that exceeded expectations. Additionally, Microware signed a potentially very lucrative deal with Motorola during the quarter to provide the chip giant with the operating system for its new Streamaster digitial set-top box. Speaking to ComputerWire last quarter, Microware’s chief financial officer, George Leonard, said he expected income from the deal would begin to roll in some time during 1999.
