Amicas Inc. posted revenues of $50.4 million last year, up 9.3 percent compared with 2007, but slipped deep into the red during the fourth quarter as the value of its shares plunged.
The Boston radiology and medical image software provider said it took a $27.3 million impairment charge “primarily due to the sustained decline in the market value of the company’s equity during the fourth quarter of 2008,” adding that it doesn’t expect any material impact from the charge over the long term.
Fourth-quarter sales were $11.7 million, flat compared to the same period in 2007; excluding the impairment charge, Amicas managed to narrow its fourth-quarter operating loss to $1.6 million, compared to $1.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2007.
For the full year, the company posted a net loss (excluding the fourth-quarter impairment charge) of $2.6 million, compared with $862,000 during the same period in 2007. Adding in the charge takes the full-year operating loss to $32.1 million for 2008, compared with $4.5 million during the prior year.
Amicas said it bought back 9.4 million shares of its own stock during the year, for a total repurchase of 14.3 million shares for about $40.3 million since 2006. The most recent buyback, during the fourth quarter, was approximately 193,000 shares for roughly $290,000.
Company executives said that, despite the damaging impairment charge, Amicas had its most successful quarter of bookings ever, its third consecutive quarter of record bookings.
