Baltimore haunted by acquisitions past

NEWS Irish software security company Baltimore is reeling in huge losses brought on by acquisitions that have failed to pay off. The company increased pre-tax losses in 2001 to £660m from £99m in 2000. Its acquisition of Content Technologies, which makes email virus scanning software was sold off for less than fifth of what it cost. Despite this, the company claims it has enough cash to keep it ticking over for the next 12 months. The company has also warned shareholders that it has extended its targets for achieving profitability. It originally promised to reach the dizzy heights of profitability by the middle of this year. The company's CEO now says it will be another six to nine moths before it even breaks even. Although revenue was up ever so slightly to £70m, its share price this morning took a hit. During morning trading it lost two pence to sit at 10.5p at 11.15 (GMT). The company, which was once worth £7bn has had to cut jobs and executive bonuses and sell of units to avoid running out of cash. Chief executive Bijan Khezri said in an RNS statement: "Whilst we do not expect any significant global macroeconomic growth until 2003, technology spending will increase in 2002."