NFC chipset vendor Inside Secure has reported a 19 per cent decline in 2012 revenues as well as widening losses, citing the difficulties experienced by major clients in its mobile NFC division, notably BlackBerry.

In response to the downturn in its results, the company said it could potentially reduce its workforce by 20 per cent with the aim of reducing annual operating expenses by $13 million.

Inside Secure said overall revenues fell to $122 million in 2012 from $151.5 million in the previous year, on an adjusted basis. The company also reported a net loss of $30.3 million, double the 2011 figure of $14.6 million (also on an adjusted basis).

The company specifically cited “the difficulty experienced by a number of major clients of its mobile NFC division, which were impacted by the transformation of the industry, and by a slowdown in the NFC market growth.”

Revenues at the mobile NFC unit fell by 10 per cent in 2012 to $43.3 million, mainly due to a strong decline in handset sales by BlackBerry, Inside Secure’s main client, and the postponement until 2013 of the new BB10-based smartphones.

“This bad news, which is mainly due to the great upheavals in the business environment in which we operate and to the difficulties encountered by our main client in the mobile NFC segment, is leading us to refocus our business and adapt our organisation model and our cost structure,” said Remy de Tonnac (pictured), the company’s CEO.

The company also said that its previous 2014 consolidated revenue target of $400 million was now “obsolete”.