SiliconBeat

Chordiant Software slashed its forecast for its fiscal fourth quarter by a third and said it
will lay off 33 employees, or about 13 percent of its work force, after sales dropped toward
the end of September.

“The macroeconomic climate, even in the emerging geographies, which until recently had
remained strong, deteriorated significantly during the last few weeks of the quarter”
according to a statement by the Chordiant’s chief executive, Steven Springsteel, in a release
put out after markets closed Tuesday.

At the end of July Chordiant had estimated that sales for its fiscal year 2008 would come in
at between $124 to $128 million, which would have valued fourth quarter sales at between about $39 and $43 million. Now the company projects that quarterly sales will be more like $27 to $28 million. The company says it will be profitable, but reigned in its expectations on the upside, saying earnings per share will be from 2 to 3 cents. In July it forecast a profit
range from break even to a profit of 7 cents per share.

The news came the same day that Symphony Technology Group of Palo Alto reported acquiring 3.5 million shares of Chordiant shares, or about 11.7 percent, “in a series of transactions completed on Oct. 6″ for about $18,435,725 in investment capital.”  We did the math on that one and it works out to about $5.22 per share.  Over the last sixty days STG detailed the purchase of 1.07 million of those shares for $5.27 million, or $4.93 per share.

Chordiant shares fell 60 cents, or 15.7 percent, in regular trading before the company released its news today, and dropped 24 more cents, or 7.5 percent, to $2.98 in after-hours trading, according to Yahoo Finance figures.