Crossroads misses 3Q estimates

Crossroads Systems (Nasdaq: CRDS) missed analysts' lowered expectations in the third quarter.

After market close Thursday, the vendor of routers for storage networks posted a fiscal third quarter loss of $8 million, or 30 cents per share, excluding special charges. First Call consensus predicted a profit of 21 cents per share.

Shares of Crossroads fell to 8 1/2 in afterhours activity on the Island electronic communications network, immediately following the quarterly report. Crossroads stock closed Wednesday's regular trading at 10 5/16, down 1 11/16 for the session.

Including all items, Crossroads lost $17.8 million, or 67 cents per share.

The company last month said it would report disappointing third quarter results because one customer was using its inventory slowly as it moved to newer products. Crossroads at the time also said a major customer, Compaq Computer (NYSE: CPQ), would move from Crossroads' routers to internally-developed hardware.

Third quarter revenue fell 6 percent year-over-year to $4.8 million from $5.1 million.

"We faced tough challenges this quarter that caused us to take a hard look at the business," said Brian Smith, chairman and CEO. "Although we believe the core SCSI router business will continue to grow, it is not growing at a rate we are satisfied with.">