During the quarter a number of factors affected the indicated revenue. The key issues faced by the Company included continuing competitive pricing, continued weakness in the US dollar reducing the Euro value of that revenue and deeply discounted sales of products entering their end of life cycle.
Option anticipated that the fourth quarter of 2009 would continue to prove difficult as the company continues to transition its product portfolio and organization to an integrated software, services and hardware platform.
Option continues to believe that it is well positioned for 2010 due to:
The significant cost savings identified and implemented during 2009 The recently announced additional planned cost savings of EUR 20 million, the implementation of which has started including the recent closing of the Kamp-Lintfort facility as planned The launch of its embedded module in the Plastic Logic ebook reader announced earlier this month as an indication of new opportunities in the consumer electronics market The continued investment and customer interest in the Company's uCAN software platform combined with the supply chain optimized and yet highly customizable USB devices to provide an integrated solution to operators The anticipated strengthening of the balance sheet through the recently announced rights offering Audited figures for the fourth quarter and the full year 2009 will be published on March 2, 2010.