Lante Cuts 70 More Jobs

The integrator, based here, said it cut 22 percent of its staff, or 70 of its 340 employees.

It's the latest in a series of difficult decisions faced by the company. Lante bet big on the B2B marketplace space and saw its fortunes fall as economic conditions caused companies to defer participating in exchanges or focus on developing supply chain enhancements that could theoretically add dollars to the bottom line faster.

"Marketplaces have shifted from transaction-based markets to those that focus on core business processes," said CEO Rudy Puryear during a conference call Thursday afternoon with financial analysts and media. "Increasingly, a lot of the value-add is the extent to which an enterprise can tightly couple itself with its partners."

Lante will now focus on building applications that create close ties between a company and its vendors, partners, suppliers and customers, Puryear said.

Nonetheless, Puryear said he is optimistic about Lante's third-quarter business prospects and referred to a "strengthening sales pipeline." The company might even break even then, he says.

Lante CFO Bill Davis said the company is projecting a loss per share of 12 cents to 14 cents for the second quarter 2001 on sales of $10 million to $10.5 million. Lante is slated to report its second-quarter results July 23.

Puryear said that while Lante is competing for business with the likes of Computer Sciences Corp. and EDS, clients find Lante's flexibility "refreshing."

Other changes Lante enacted include reducing the salaries of senior Lante management by 10 percent. Also, a Lante spokesperson said that the company's Dallas, New York and Los Angeles offices will now serve primarily as centers of sales and business development, with minimal focus on delivery of applications, which will be built elsewhere.

In January, Lante closed its Charlotte, N.C., office and let go 40 employees on the heels of a fourth-quarter 2000 loss of $8.5 million, or 22 cents per share, on sales of $15 million.

In December 2000, Lante reduced its then 500-person staff by 19 percent and closed several foreign offices.