Happy Easter Crabby->Ants Software Says Company's Cash Will Run Out Next Month
By David Evans
Burlingame, California, March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Ants Software Inc., which has never sold a product since the software developer was founded 23 years ago, said it will run out of cash next month.
The company said in its annual report that it has raised $660,000 through sales of stock and convertible debt since Dec. 31, when it had $734,319 in cash, and that should be enough to keep it operating through April.
``I anticipate, although I can't guarantee, that we'll continue to raise the cash needed for operations,'' Chief Executive Francis Ruotolo said in an interview.
The company's auditor, Burr, Pilger & Mayer LLP, warned of ``substantial doubt'' about Ants' ability to continue as a going concern. The company's auditor in 1999 and 2000, Farber & Hass LLP, had issued similar warnings.
The Burlingame, California-based company, which says it has found a way to speed up data processing, said its loss for 2001 narrowed to $5.8 million, or 39 cents a share, from $8.5 million, or 67 cents in 2000.
Its share price rose 16 cents to $2.08.
Ants also reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission decided late last year not to bring a threatened enforcement action against the company. Last August, Ants tentatively agreed to settle a lawsuit planned by the agency by agreeing not to violate reporting requirements in the future.
In January 2000, Donald Hutton, the company's largest shareholder and former chairman, falsely identified himself as a certified public accountant in an SEC filing. That prompted the resignation of Jaak Olesk, the company's outside auditor. Ants said the filing was a mistake. That month, the company moved its headquarters from Hutton's Santa Barbara home to Burlingame.
Also that month, Ants said that Dr. Peter Patton was a member of its board of directors. Patton has since denied joining the board.
Ants didn't file quarterly and annual reports with the SEC for more than a decade, between 1988 and 1999. The company, founded in 1979, said it didn't think they were required.
The company also never disclosed an unsuccessful effort by a creditor in 1996 to force Ants into involuntary bankruptcy. |
