B2B software company Ariba's second-quarter results will be around half what was expected and the company says it will lay off 700 jobs, or 30% of its workforce.
In a conference call, chief executive Keith Krach said the cuts would “be across every function and geography” with greater emphasis in the non-customer-facing and non-product-related areas. Cuts in the research and development area and sales force would be less than in other areas, Krach says.
Ariba has two staff members in New Zealand and reports to Australia, where there is around 30. Staff in the Asia-Pacific number around 200.
The company announced at the same time that it has canned its acquisition of Agile Software, which has a strong presence in Asia.
Ariba country managers around the world are forbidden to make any comments until after the full announcement of the second quarter results on April 20.
The company says it expects to announce revenues of around $US90 million and to post a loss of $US0.20c a share, excluding non-cash charges.
Krach says the downturn in revenues was primarily felt in North America but Ariba expected the impact to be felt in Europe and parts of Asia as well. The one bright spot was Japan, he says, which continues to grow.
Ariba blames its results on a “dramatic change in IT spending” in line with economic conditions and on a significant drop in demand for industry exchange and marketplace software.
Krach says Ariba doesn’t see this area picking up, and says marketplaces will form a much smaller portion of its revenues in the future.
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