TRIKON SHARES PLUMMET; LAYOFF PLAN HURTS VALLEY COMPUTER CHIP EQUIPMENT COMPANY.Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer Shares of Chatsworth-based Trikon Technologies Inc. plunged Thursday Thursday: see week. , the first day of trading after the company announced it would fire 20 percent of its staff and restructure its business operations Business operations are those activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. Compare business processes. The outcome of business operations is the harvesting of value from assets . The announced layoffs follow an earlier round of firings in March when the company let 8 percent of its staff go to save money. Trikon shares lost $2.78 - or 34 percent of their value - Thursday to close at $6.03 on trading of 960,000 shares, five times normal activity. The stock drop came in response to Trikon's disappointing third-quarter earnings released late Wednesday Wednesday: see week. and to word that it would miss an interest payment due Wednesday on convertible subordinated notes. The payment was blocked for 180 days by Trikon's bank lenders. Trikon posted a net loss for the quarter of between 70 cents and 75 cents a share on $12.7 million in revenues. For the like period in 1996, Trikon had net income of $500,000, or 6 cents a share, on revenue of $8.8 million. Company spokesman Frederick Frederick, city, United States Frederick, city (1990 pop. 40,148), seat of Frederick co., NW Md.; settled 1745, inc. 1817. The processing center of a fertile farm and dairying area, it makes beer, household items, optical and glass products, leather goods, Reynolds said management spent Thursday explaining the layoffs to Trikon staff and formulating a strategy to move the company forward. Reynolds said about one-fifth of the layoffs would occur in Chatsworth Chatsworth, estate, Derbyshire, central England, near Chesterfield. It is the seat of the dukes of Devonshire. Begun in 1552, the present Classical-style Chatsworth House was rebuilt in 1686. . The rest would hit employees at Trikon offices abroad. Trikon has retained Deutch Morgan Morgan, American family of financiers and philanthropists. Junius Spencer Morgan, 1813–90, b. West Springfield, Mass., prospered at investment banking. Grenfell Co. to advise it on available strategic alternatives. That could include putting the firm up for sale or seeking a partner company with which to merge, Reynolds said. ``All of the above and more,'' he said. Reynolds said he did not know when the financial advisers would make their recommendations. Trikon makes equipment to manufacture computer chips. The company has seen slowed sales over the past year and has scaled back operations considerably in that time. The March firings were blamed on the need to consolidate after acquiring a British competitor. Trikon bought that firm, Electrotech Group, in November 1996 for $145.7 million. When it made the earlier layoffs, however, Trikon largely blamed an industrywide in·dus·try·wide adv. & adj. Throughout an entire industry: sales that have decreased industrywide; industrywide cooperation. slowdown For articles with similar titles, see Slow Down (disambiguation). A slowdown is an industrial action in which employees perform their duties but seek to reduce productivity or efficiency in their performance of these duties. in the semiconductor business as the source of its woes. Wednesday's announcement that it will reorganize re·or·gan·ize v. re·or·gan·ized, re·or·gan·iz·ing, re·or·gan·iz·es v.tr. To organize again or anew. v.intr. To undergo or effect changes in organization. its operations appears to lay more of the blame for the poor earnings at the company's own feet. The company enjoyed a brief period of favor among analysts after it announced that technology it acquired through the Electrotech purchase would allow it to dramatically increase chips' speed. But the share price, which peaked at $15.50 Nov. 29, has lost ground. CAPTION(S): Chart Chart: (Color) TROUBLED TIMES Trikon Technologies Inc. has seen a steady drop in share price since the first of the year. Wednesday's disappointing earnings news sent shares down more than 30 percent. Daily News |
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