Cedar lists further after profit warning

NEWS Shares in the software and services group Cedar continued to decline yesterday, following a profit warning on Monday. The company saw 83 per cent wiped off its share value as it emerged that trading difficulties will impact on its financial stability. Cedar's market capitalisation is now £9.9m - just over ten per cent of its value at the height of the dot-com boom two years ago. One analyst told the Financial Times: "There's no doubt that a lot of institutions are bailing out and washing their hands of this stock." Cedar's executives had been forced to admit on Monday that its order book fell short of previous predictions. The company was also hampered by a change in accounting procedures, which no longer allowed it to count orders into its bottom line that had not yet been delivered. The software developer also cited a change in customer preferences from outright licensing to managed services.