IRobot gives preliminary 3q results

Burlington's iRobot Corp. said today that its third-quarter financial results will be impacted by production delays and by unanticipated litigation expenses related to legal actions against a former employee and his company.

The production delays are for its Roomba 500 Series of vacuum-cleaning robots, iRobot said.

"Our financial expectations for 2007 remain unchanged," iRobot chief executive Colin Angle said in a statement. "However, the production ramp-up by our new contract manufacturer was slower than our initial targeted projections and, consequently, revenue from delayed shipments will be recognized in the fourth quarter, resulting in revenue for the third quarter of between $63 million and $64 million. This shift from the third to the fourth quarter, coupled with unexpected litigation expenses associated with our legal actions against a former employee and his company, will result in a pre-tax loss of $1 million to $1.5 million for the third quarter."

A former iRobot engineer is accused of stealing iRobot secrets.

In US District Court in Boston, iRobot asked a judge to issue an injunction to halt Robotic FX, the former engineer's company, from making the Negotiator, a military surveillance and bomb-disposal robot similar to iRobot's PackBot machines, the Globe has reported.

According to a recent Globe story, the US military has intervened in the case. Last month, the Pentagon awarded Robotic FX of Illinois a contract to build battlefield robots for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military fears an injunction would deprive military personnel of a lifesaving technology for detecting booby traps and roadside bombs.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)