Onyx Loses $56 Million in Q3

Onyx Software's third quarter revenue dropped more than a third since the quarter one year earlier. But the company (Nasd: ONXS) insisted it could have been worse.

The Bellevue, Wash.-based CRM solutions provider reported $20.7 million in revenue for the third quarter of 2001, down 37 percent from third quarter 2000 and down sequentially 27 percent from the $28.3 million in revenues in second quarter this year.

Although Onyx reported net losses of $55.9 million for the quarter, or $(1.37) per share, compared to a net loss of $0.7 million for third quarter 2000, the company managed to beat its own dire predictions in pro-forma third quarter net loss for 2001.

As part of its extensive cost-cutting measures, the company spent over $40.1 million in one-time restructuring charges and other severance and facilities-related costs after laying off about 25 percent of its workforce in third quarter.

Excluding the one-time charges, Onyx reported pro-forma third quarter net loss of $6.7 million. "Our effective control of expenses throughout the third quarter partially offset the negative earnings impact of unexpected events," said CEO Brent Frei in a statement.

The company was forced to cut spending following the events of Sept. 11 and a pending class-action lawsuit against the company involving allegations that Onyx released misleading information in order to inflate its stock prices.

Nevertheless, Frei says he remains optimistic. "Going forward, we have dramatically increased the probability of achieving our goal of pro-forma profitability in the fourth quarter as a result of reducing our breakeven point to approximately $19 million."

www.onyx.com