Baltimore: No job cuts in Asia despite wider losses
On Tuesday, the UK-based company said it planned to cut 250 jobs, or 18 percent, of its 1,401 staff worldwide.
The company said the cuts were part of a package of measures aimed at making annual savings of US$35 million to US$50 million.
It reported an operating loss of US$102.8 million for the first three months of this year compared with US$10.7 million for the corresponding period in 2000.
Despite the huge loss, Baltimore confirmed that its regional operations would be unaffected.
"There are no job cuts in Singapore, Hong Kong or the Australia New Zealand operations," Baltimore Technologies Asia Pacific managing director John Palfreyman told Singapore.CNET.com in an email response.
Baltimore Technologies currently has 150 employees in its Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia offices, he added.
He said there would also be no job cuts in Korea, where it has a partnership called Bara Baltimore.
However, Palfreyman noted that its Sydney-based research and development team made six positions redundant, mainly in the mail security product range. These products are now developed and managed at Content Technologies, which Baltimore acquired last November.
Meanwhile, Palfreyman revealed that Asia Pacific contributed US$8.4 million, or 25 percent, of global revenues in the first quarter of this year. Global revenues hit US$33.9 million for the period ended March 31, 2000 compared with US$13.6 million a year ago.
The region also posted similar revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2000, he added.
However, he was unable to disclose how much the region contributed to Baltimore's US$18.3 million global software license revenues for the first quarter of this year.
Some of Baltimore's regional clients include ID.safe, Singapore Network Solutions, Australian New Zealand Bank and Telstra Corp.
The Nasdaq-listed company last traded at US$2.03, up US$0.02.