How deep is OCZ in the mud?

The Register tries to make some sense of OCZ Technology's financial woes. Shit hit the fan when CEO Ryan Petersen resigned in September 2012, new CEO Ralph Schmitt then revealed that the company's second fiscal quarter revenue would be significantly lower than previously expected due to customer incentive programmes but to this day the company has yet to publish this (and the next) earnings statement. On the final day of January, OCZ send out a notice to investors that revenues for the unreported fiscal second and third quarters will both be between $65 million and $85 million. The company has until February 28 to file the quarterly results, otherwise it risks being delisted from the Nasdaq stock index.

For these second and third quarters Schmitt doesn't know to the nearest $40m how much OCZ earned. The customer incentive programme liabilities and inventory run-down charges must be a nightmare of fuzziness. The latter are estimated to be $15m in the second quarter and $30m in the third; that's $45m of assets that are just vanishing.

Some 80 per cent of the low-end products have been canned, along with other products; 150 in total have hit the scrap heap. There was $9m cash in the bank at the end of December and $7m in bank debt, giving $2m net cash, trade receivables of $35m and trade payables of $30m. This is a business tottering on a knife-edge.

Full details can be read over here.