The US slowdown claimed its first UK victim this week when consultant Aukett warned that profit for the year would be 50% below market expectations.
Its share price plummeted 45% to 8p soon after the news was announced on Tuesday.

The architecture, design and engineering group said it had slashed forecasts because the US slowdown had meant that IT projects were not coming through as expected.

The company said this would more than halve the £950,000 it earned in the six months to March last year. It is due to report its interim results in May. Finance director Robert Warner said: "We had great hopes this year that the growth in IT would continue, but it has not taken off as we expected."