Madge makes first loss

Madge lost $5.5 million on $112.5m revenues for its second financial quarter, dated April-June. For the equivalent quarter in 1995, Madge made $10.7 million on $98m revenues.

Robert Madge, chairman and CEO of the firm now based in California, said the blame was down to a slowdown in European demand, compounded by channel hassles. The loss also included charges incurred from the buyout of Teleos Communications, completed in February.

Madge is looking forward to better times with soon-to-be released products such as the Visage workgroup Ethernet switching line and tools for integrating ATM with Ethernet and Token Ring.

"In Madge's history as a public company, this is the first time that we have had to report disappointing results," said Robert Madge, chairman and CEO. "The company has gone through quite an ambitious transformation over the last year, a transformation that was not without its obstacles. In fact, the revenue shortfall this quarter is predominantly due to sales channel integration issues that resulted from the acquisition of Lannet last year. This disruption was compounded by softness in the European market.

"I am very unhappy with our Q2 results, and we intend to learn from this experience and take a more conservative approach to our business."