Top Flash memory provider Fusion-io (FIO) is having a rough Thursday, with shares of FIO stock worth about 26% less than they were yesterday.
As a result, FIO stock has now lost nearly 60% of its value since Jan. 1.
So what happened to FIO stock?
Well, Fusion-io earnings were released yesterday. Revenue collapsed 27% to $86.3 million, while the adjusted loss came to 7 cents per share.
The good news is that both numbers were better than expected. The bad news: According to the company, revenue will be up only “slightly” sequentially in the current quarter. But the Street was looking for a 33% increase.
Well, and there was more bad news. FIO chief financial officer Dennis Wolf bolted, after being at the company for just three years. or so. And FIO chief sales officer has left as well.
By the way, back in May FIO also lost its CEO and chief marketing officer.
It’s hard to believe that back in June 2011 FIO stock was a red-hot IPO. The expectation was that the company would be a huge beneficiary from growth of customers like Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB).
But the Flash memory business has instead turned out to be a slog. The competition continued to mount, such as from players like EMC (EMC), Hitachi Data Systems, Huawei Technologies and Intel (INTC). FIO also had to face a variety of well-funded startups.
Another issue: customer concentration. About 84% of total revenues for FIO come from a mere 10 customers. And they often make massive bulk purchases, which leads to unpredictability of forecasts.
In other words, it’s a good bet that FIO stock will be dead money for a while.
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook. He is also the author of High-Profit IPO Strategies, All About Commodities and All About Short Selling. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
