Intershop Falls on Q4 Warning

Intershop Communications AG, a European e-commerce software maker, plummeted 10 3/64 to 5 5/64 in early trading Tuesday after joining several of its U.S. counterparts in warning of weak results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year.

The Hamburg, Germany-based company, which also has offices in San Francisco, California, said it lowered its expectations because of a worldwide slowdown in spending on information technology.

Intershop said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of 28 million to 30 million euro, with a net loss of 30 million to 32 million euro, or 0.36 to 0.38 euro per share. The company said the fourth-quarter slowdown "is not related to competitive pressures or the longer-term prospects for e-business software vendors."

"We are disappointed with the results for the fourth quarter of 2000," said chief financial officer Wilfried Beeck. "Several multimillion-dollar sales opportunities that we expected to close in late 2000 have been postponed until 2001, especially in the U.S., where we continue to ramp up our sales capabilities."

Added Beeck: "While we've seen continuous growth in Europe, especially in Germany and the UK, revenues in the U.S. and Asia suffered significantly from a marketwide softening in technology spending."

The company is also pleased with full-year revenue growth, which will be up about 165 percent over 1999, according to Beeck.

"This revenue growth is much higher than the 100 percent growth we had expected at the beginning of the year 2000," Beeck said.

Chief executive officer Stephan Schambach said the company is optimistic about the new year. "We believe that companies will re-launch their e-commerce investments during 2001, and we are well positioned in this market," he said, noting that Forrester Research recently ranked Intershop's Enfinity product as the No. 1 e-commerce platform.

"Despite the recent softening in IT spending, our product offering remains well suited to our clients' needs. Our entire management team is now focused on improving the effectiveness of our sales organization and to bring expenses in line with revenue projections," said Schambach.