Sapiens fires 25
The company revenue totaled $29.6 million in January-September 2005, 17% less than in the corresponding period in 2004.
Shiri Habib 19 Jan 06 11:34
Roni Al-Dor became president and CEO of Sapiens International NV (Nasdaq: SPNS; TASE: SPNS) two months ago. Now he is starting to restructure the company, including 25 lay-offs, mostly in Israel, amounting to 6% of Sapien’s staff.
Al-Dor, who replaced Yitzhak Sharir, took charge of a company in trouble. Sapien’s revenue totaled $29.6 million in January-September 2005, 17% less than in the corresponding period in 2004. Sapiens’s bottom line was no comfort to investors, either; its net loss grew 90% to $5.9 million.
Trading in Sapiens’s share moved to the Nasdaq small cap index in 2005, after the company failed to meet the requirements for the main Nasdaq listing. An injection of capital from Sapiens controlling shareholders Formula Systems (Nasdaq: FORTY; TASE: FORT) (controlled by chairman Dan Goldstein) and First Israel Mezzanine Investors Fund (FIMI), in exchange for an allocation of shares, aimed at boosting the company’s equity above the minimum required for Nasdaq’s main list, failed to avert this demotion. Formula currently owns 58.4% of Sapiens. Sapiens, which is also listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, has a current market cap of $17.7 million.
Founded eight years ago, Sapiens began as a software company. It developed and marketed tools for developing general applications. Four years ago, however, the company decided to concentrate on solutions for the insurance sector. The current round of lay-offs is not Sapiens’s first.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on January 19, 2006
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