Lightbridge Restructures, COO to Leave

e-Commerce security software maker Lightbridge will lay off 70 people and close its Irvine, Calif., facility in a restructuring that will also see its president/COO leave next month.

The moves, combined with previous office consolidation, will result in charges of $1.9 million over the next three quarters but should ultimately save the company between $7 million and $8 million annually.

CEO Pamela D.A. Reeve will assume the duties of outgoing COO Christine Cournoyer.

“While the company enjoys a very strong balance sheet, we continually review the performance of our business segments, facilities, products and vendor relationships,” Reeve said. “Today’s action will reduce our fixed costs and, more importantly, will improve our efficiency in developing and supporting products and services.”

The California facilty, which handles development and management of the firm’s PrePay product for wireless carriers, will be close at the end of July, Lightbridge spokesman Glen Zimmerman told internetnews.com.

Of the 40 workers there, about 25 will be relocated to the company’s Broomfield, Colo., site, where the company currently has a
development and product management team for its fraud and risk management
products, Zimmerman said.

Reeve thanked Cournoyer and others for their contributions. Before joining Burlington, Mass.-based Lightbridge, Cournoyer was a vice president at IBM’s software group and a vice presdident of technology and operations at Lotus Development. Her immediate plans are not known.

Lightbridge also reaffirmed its revenue guidance of $27 million to $29 million for the second quarter. At the same time, the company reported it expects a second quarter loss of 4 cents to 7 cents per share, after giving effect to the restructuring charges.

Official results will be released July 23.

Lightbridge was founded in 1989 to offer software and services to help wireless phone carriers with their billing operations. Since then, its applications have extended to online e-commerce firms to assess credit of potential customers, screen for fraud, authenticate customers and monitor transaction behavior to detect indentity theft.