Chief executive Kevin Grumball has admitted that he and his fellow directors have reached the stage where they 'are willing to consider joining with other companies' to preserve e-commerce specialist Actinic. 'Nothing firm has yet appeared but we are actively continuing the process' added Grumball, who brought the company to techMARK in May 2000 and has since seen the share price rocket to 270p before crashing all the way back to a mere 6.5p. His comments came as the company unveiled a dismal set of third quarter results. Sales in the three months to June were some 39.4% down on the comparable period last year at £338,000, while pre-tax losses increased to £2.4m (£1.6m). Comments that a turnaround is expected but that in the current economic climate 'it is impossible to forecast the timescale' also seem somewhat ominous. As Grumball et al continue to consider their corporate opinions the focus has switched to conserving cash. As of 30 June Actinic had £14.7m in the bank and has been scaling back marketing activities, particularly in the US, for sometime. On a more positive front, German and French language versions of the company's core software products have now been released and Spanish and Italian versions are at the beta testing stage.