Tandberg TV Stock Off 38% After Warning

Tandberg Television stock lost 38 percent of its value on the Oslo Stock Exchange Wednesday, a day after the video encoder maker warned investors of a 20 percent revenue shortfall in the third quarter. (See IPTV Sluggishness Slugs Tandberg TV.)

Tandberg TV stock closed Tuesday at 89.75 Norwegian Krone (US$14.05) and closed Wednesday at 55.5 Krone ($8.69), according to Bloomberg. Volume Wednesday was 33,591,989 shares traded, versus an average daily volume over the last three months of 931,269.

Tandberg TV told analysts Tuesday that revenues will be approximately $80 million for the third quarter -- well below the $100 million analysts had expected.

Tandberg TV spokespeople were not available for comment Wednesday.

Tandberg TV's warning clearly chilled investors' hopes for burgeoning encoder sales in a growing IPTV market -- at least in the near term. The company pointed to slower-than-expected video gear purchasing by telco TV customers, and the loss of two large encoder accounts. Tandberg CFO Fraser Park told Light Reading Tuesday that the two lost deals account for half of the $20 million shortfall.

The company also pointed to a general scarcity of high-definition (HD) MPEG-4 chipsets for the new generation of set-top boxes. Analysts say some of the companies that make those chipsets are still dealing with bugs, and that carriers are taking a wait-and-see attitude on the reliability of the new HD chipsets.

Analysts and vendors tell Light Reading that the chipset availability problem, at least, is not unique to Tandberg TV.

— Mark Sullivan, Reporter, Light Reading