Bad days for B2B: Commerce One continues downward trend

NEWS Commerce One now expects to make a loss of 11 cents a share for the quarter ending March 31 2001, up from previous analyst forecasts of four cents a share. Revenue expectations have been lowered to $170m from analyst predictions of $198m. In a statement, company CEO Mark Hoffman blamed the downturn on declining economic conditions and a fall off in IT spending. Speaking to silicon.com yesterday, Chris Phillips, European director of marketing with Commerce One, remained bullish despite the bad news from Ariba and i2. He said: "The economic downturn will weed out the stronger companies from the weaker. With the combined resources of SAP we arguably have a 12 market lead on Ariba and we've got some good strengths we can call on." Commerce One shares fell over 28.5 per cent yesterday following the warnings from Ariba and i2. The company made its own announcement after trading closed.