Kemet Shares Collapse; Default Danger Looms

Kemet (KEM) shares have lost more than half their value today after the company reported ugly financial results for its fiscal first quarter June 30, announced plans to cut 12 percent of its staff and warned that it faces a potential debt default.

For the quarter, Kemet posted revenue of $242.8 million, slightly below the Street consensus of $245.2 million. The bigger issue: The company recorded a loss of $187.3 million, or $2.33 a share. That includes an assortment of special charges, including a $152.6 million in impairment charges as the company reduced the carrying value of both its ceramic business group and its electrolytic business group. The company also took a $16.5 million hit for inventory write-downs and variances, a $4.1 million charge for equipment relocation and integration costs, and a $4.9 million charge for severance expenses.

Read the rest of this post

Must-Reads from other Websites

Panos Mourdoukoutas

Why Apple Should Buy China’s Xiaomi

Paul Graham

What I Didn’t Say

Benjamin Bratton

We Need to Talk About TED

Mat Honan

I, Glasshole: My Year With Google Glass

Chris Ware

All Together Now

Corey S. Powell and Laurie Gwen Shapiro

The Sculpture on the Moon

About Voices

Along with original content and posts from across the Dow Jones network, this section of AllThingsD includes Must-Reads From Other Websites — pieces we’ve read, discussions we’ve followed, stuff we like. Six posts from external sites are included here each weekday, but we only run the headlines. We link to the original sites for the rest. These posts are explicitly labeled, so it’s clear that the content comes from other websites, and for clarity’s sake, all outside posts run against a pink background.

We also solicit original full-length posts and accept some unsolicited submissions.

Read more »