strategy. Investors and customers were hoping that, to reverse the slide, the company would announce new accounting and quality controls in its Q3 report. However, on 30 October, FAST reported a loss of $100M in the quarter (up from the anticipated $60M loss), with another collapse of licence revenue, down 55% year on year, resulting in a significant loss of software market share. The operation of the company as a software company rather than a services company was accompanied by its gross margin falling to 67% from 83% a year earlier. The problems with the non-payment of bills by customers continued, with $26M of debt being written off. Board of Directors The conduct of FAST's directors was the subject of much comment in Norway, with one director resigning and another making public statements about other directors and major shareholders. FAST board member, Robert Keith, told the newspaper Finansavisen: "I ought to have seen the problems in FAST earlier. And I ought to have understood that Hans Gude Gudesen is a crazy liar. Also, I ought have shot Oystein Stray Spetalen the first time I met him. That would have helped a lot of people." Spetalen and Hans Gude Gudesen were both major shareholders in FAST. Furthermore, directors Keith and Fussel were allegedly being pursued by the Norwegian tax authorities for US$50M in unpaid taxes. In the event of non-payment, there was concern that liability might fall on the company. The ongoing turmoil saw three directors resign from the board, the last being Johan Fredrik Odfjell, who was quoted in the company's release as saying: "FAST faces many challenges and opportunities going forward". On 22 December, Orkla, FAST's largest shareholder, demanded an extraordinary general meeting to force Fussel and Keith off the board. Need to Restate Accounts for 2006 and 2007 On 12 December 2007, the Oslo Stock Exchange suspended trading of FAST shares. The next morning, the company announced it was reviewing the accounts both for 2006 and the preliminary results for 2007, with the likely outcome that the results would be changed. In an article entitled "Fast restates its accounts", www.dagensit.no reported that FAST's results for 2006 and 2007 might be revised, in what it called "another clean up round." It also stated: "The Search technology vendor Fast Search & Transfer have had several rounds with restating of accounts." Some months after CFO Joseph Lacson declared that “everything is