SonoSite Lowers Sales Forecast

SonoSite, the Bothell, WA-based maker of portable ultrasound machines, said today in its first-quarter financial report that its annual revenue for 2009 may be flat to down 10 percent compared with the previous year. The company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SONO]]) said it is responding by cutting expenses 5 to 10 percent, a deeper round of cuts than the previous range it announced, of as much as 5 percent. It blamed dropping demand at U.S. hospitals, and less favorable foreign currency exchange rates.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.