14:51 EST Monday
Saflink on the brink again
Despite an $8 million equity financing in June, Saflink Corp. of
Bellevue said Monday it is in dire financial straits.
The biometric security company said in a Securities and Exchange
Commission filing that as of Dec. 5 "we had approximately $25,000 in
cash and require an additional $90,000 prior to December 14, 2001, in
order to meet our payroll obligations."
"We will need approximately an additional $135,000 to continue our
operations through December 31, 2001," the company said.
Saflink, which was delisted from Nasdaq this summer, said it hopes to
raise the money through bridge loans or other means. But it warned
that there "there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain
sufficient cash to continue our operations past December 14, or
through the end of the year."
The 33-employee company's products use biometric technologies to
identify and authenticate users on personal computers, workstations,
the Internet and servers in networked computer systems. But its
nine-month revenues were only $380,000.
Last spring the company issued a series of warnings that it was on the
brink of closing down. Shortly after raising the $8 million in June,
Saflink cut more than 40 percent of its staff.
The latest warnings came in a filing to register for sale nearly 16
million shares of Saflink common stock that would be issued to certain
stockholders if they exercise warrants or convert their preferred
stock.
The company would receive $13.2 million if the warrants for 6.9
million common shares are fully exercised, although it would get no
money if the common stock is sold, according to the filing. Those
warrants have exercise prices from $1.40 to $1.75 per common share,
above the $1.35 recent trading price of Saflink's shares on the OTC
Bulletin Board.
The company also said in recent filings that it has moved its
headquarters from Redmond to Bellevue and that since June, it has let
go a dozen employees as well as the individuals who held the CEO and
chief financial officer posts.
Despite those cuts, the company said its costs for the quarter ending
Sept. 30 ran at $500,000 per month.
From its inception, said Saflink, it has accumulated net losses of
approximately $72.3 million on revenue of $12.1 million.
seattle.bcentral.com
steve |
