SiliconBeat

Chordiant Software of Cupertino reported Tuesday that it expects to report as much as a 28 percent drop in sales for its quarter just ended compared to the same period last year, and that its profits will swing to a loss.

The culprit: more cautious IT spending among customers of Chordiant’s enterprise software used mostly by banking, insurance,  health care and telecommunications companies. In particular it noted weakness in orders from financial service firms in North America and the United Kingdom.

Sales are forecast to be between $23.5 million and $25 million for the quarter, down from
$32.8 million in the year-before quarter and $29.1 million the quarter before.

It says it will report a loss of as much as 16 cents per share for the quarter, compared to a
15-cent profit the year before and a one-cent profit the quarter before.