General Magic loses $6.2M in December quarter

General Magic fell short of analyst estimates in the fourth quarter.

After market close Wednesday, the company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $6.2 million, or 13 cents per share, excluding one-time charges. The lone analyst surveyed by First Call predicted a loss of 9 cents per share for General Magic's quarter ended Dec. 31.

General Magic provides voice-application services as well as a voice platform to enterprise, Internet and telecommunications companies.

Shares of General Magic traded at $1.50 in after-hours activity on the Island ECN immediately following the release of quarterly results. General Magic fell 3 cents to $1.47 in Wednesday's regular trading ahead of the news.

Including non-recurring events, General Magic lost $8 million.

Fourth-quarter revenue increased 496 percent year-over-year to $2.6 million from $436,000 in the comparable period a year earlier.

The company, which is designing and hosting the Virtual Advisor financial service for the OnStar system of General Motors, ended the fourth quarter with cash and short-term investments of $19 million, down from $25.5 million at the end of 1999.

"We are sharpening our focus and implementing an aggressive business strategy that capitalizes on our technology and application expertise and the growing voice market opportunities," said Kathie Layton, recently appointed president and CEO.

"We have taken the steps we believe necessary to produce sustainable, long-term profitable growth, and with the recent streamlining activities, we have now aligned our organizational assets to help achieve our goals," she said.>