Peregrine Systems Inc. announced that it will restate its financial statements for 2000, 2001 and the first three quarters of 2002 to correct irregularities that could amount to $100 million.
In addition, the San Diego-based company, which makes infrastructure management software, said that it's under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and that it was considering a number of cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. Peregrine employs about 3,500 people.
The company said it was cooperating with the investigation.
According to a company statement, the decision to restate the numbers was the result of an internal investigation "into accounting errors and irregularities."
The announcement comes about two weeks after Peregrine announced that it might have to restate its numbers and that Chairman and CEO Steve Gardner and Chief Financial Officer Matt Gless had resigned. Rick Nelson took over as acting CEO, and Fred Gerson was named acting CFO.
In that statement, the company said accounting firm KPMG International had discovered potential irregularities in the company's books. Peregrine hired Netherlands-based KPMG in April to replace its former auditor, Chicago-based Arthur Anderson LLP.
A spokeswoman for Peregrine said today that no further details concerning the restatement of the numbers or potential layoffs were available. She said as soon as they did become available, they would be made public.
The news didn't seem to hurt Peregrine's stock price, which fell when the company originally made the announcement that it might have to restate its financial results. In afternoon trading, the stock had rose 5.23% to $1.61.
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