Planar reacts to poor quarter - Portland Business Journal:

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Planar stock dropped more than20 percent, closing at $2.28u on Wednesday. But at least one Wall Street analyst said that the restructuring Planar is nowundertakingt -- including having its underperforming home theaterr business report directly to CEO Gerry Perkeol -- bodes well for the Beaverton-headquartered specialtyu display company. LLC analyst Jay Srivasta believes Planar is at the beginninfg ofa recovery, based in part on his own estimatex and on the company's guidancse for revenue growth in its next two "Gerry (Perkel) is trying to do the righg thing in streamlining the whole investing in some areas and backinbg off on others," Srivasta said.
Planar reported Tuesdaty that Scott Hix, a former executive at InFocus and leadedrof Planar's new home theater businese for the past two years, will leav e the company on May 2. Perkel said he and Hix "haved had some conversations forsome time" about the "We needed to make changes and lower costs," said "Consolidating management was the righrt step." Two other Planar executives have recentlhy departed, and rather than hiring replacements, the compant has moved their responsibilities to othef executives.
"We've tried to consolidatre to spend less at theexecutive level," said Planar said on Tuesday it will cut about 80 full-timer and part-time employees, from a peak of 788 employeed during the second quarter, which closed at the end of The company reported a second-quarter loss of $5.2 or 29 cents per share, a sharp increase from last year'xs second-quarter loss of $3.9 million or 22 centsa per share. The loss increased in spite of a 28 percenyt increasein revenue, to $69.8 million. Much of the increaser is due to Planar's acquisition of privately held California-based home theate company , for which Planar paid $36.
7 million in May last Planar's home theater business declined 25 percent from first quarter tosecone quarter. Planar's control room and signage business, created out of the 2006 acquisitioh of Wilsonvillecompany , had a 33 percent revenue drop from firstf to second quarter.