Bright Station shares continue slide

That's what happens when you run out of cash

By Tim Richardson, 1st May 2001

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Shares in Bright Station continued to slide this morning following its announcement yesterday that it was running out of cash.

Yesterday its share price dropped by a quarter to 15.25 pence wiping off £9 million from the value off the company. In early trading this morning shares fell a further 3.25 pence to 12 pence - around half what it was worth on Friday's close.

Bright Station's fall was prompted by an announcement that the e-commerce outfit is restructuring and looking for someone to bail it out.

Casualties of the overhaul include the disposal or closure of its ecommerce operations, Sparza and Officeshopper and Dan Wagner, CE of Bright Station, has already tabled his interest in acquire parts of these operations.

The company said it intends to run with its information management operation Smartlogik.

In a statement, the company said: "The Board has concluded that it is no longer feasible to continue its current rate of cash expenditure in support of all of its business initiatives notwithstanding their potential for value creation."

Its own figures show its been blowing around £3 million a month since the end of last year leaving it with a little over £4 million at the beginning of May. Unless additional funding is won it's on course to run out of cash by the summer.

Bright Station said it is currently negotiating a number of financing options. It had agreed staged funding, in principle, from Credit Suisse First Boston. However, this is dependent on a minimum market capitalisation of £30 million and the collapse of its share price looks likely to have scuppered that plan.

In March, Bright Station subsidiary, WebTop, axed more than 20 staff in a bid to cut costs. ®