On May 10, 2010, Kistefos AS, the largest stockholder of Trico Marine Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRMA), sent a letter to Trico Lead Director Richard A. Bachmann today advising the Board that it intends to vote its 3,535,959 shares against the company’s three incumbent directors up for election at Trico’s 2010 Annual Meeting. Kistefos said it also intends to vote against Trico’s proposals to adopt an incentive plan, authorize additional shares of common stock and stagger and delay declassifying the Board.

In the letter to Mr. Bachmann, Kistefos Chairman Christen Sveaas said the decision to vote against the three directors – Edward C. Hutcheson, Jr., Myles W. Scoggins and Per Staehr – is a direct result of Kistefos having lost all confidence in Trico Chairman and CEO Joseph Compofelice.

Kistefos had expressly called on the Board last October to remove Mr. Compofelice from his executive positions, citing the overwhelming loss of stockholder value and enormous financial losses that have occurred on his watch. Given the Board’s continuing refusal to respond to the concerns of the stockholders and its continuing support for Mr. Compofelice and his failed strategy, Kistefos said it was left with no choice other than to vote for change in the Board’s composition. Kistefos said that it believes that much of the crisis which exists today could have been avoided had the Board listened to the stockholders last year when it had the opportunity.

Read the entire letter in Kistefos' 13D/A filing with the SEC.

Compellent Technologies, Inc. (CML) moved nearly 25% lower on Thursday after reducing its first quarter revenue guidance from $35-37 million to $31-32 million. The decrease was attributed to seasonality, which had more of an impact on the company this quarter than in previous quarters, as well as changes made to their sales organization and delayed orders.

Despite the sharp move downwards, CEO Phil Soran remains upbeat about the company’s continued growth. However, some analysts believe that its failure to meet guidance will damage its credibility for several quarters. This led to at least one downgrade from a Buy to a Neutral by Merriman analyst Alex Kurtz.

Still, some investors see the drop as a buying opportunity, as delays in Q1 could increase sales in Q2 higher than anticipated. After all, ThinkEquity upgraded the company to a Buy just a few days ago after its channel checks indicated the company’s “new customer wins are healthy and its pipeline is strong.”

In the end, this may be a company to watch going into the second quarter, especially after today’s large drop on the news.

Zix Corporation (ZIXI) reported strong demand for its e-mail encryption software during the first quarter of 2010, with $2.2 million in new orders and a 93% renewal rate. The 195% increase over the comparable quarter in 2009 led investors to push shares higher in pre-market hours.

“ZixCorp built on the strong momentum from year-end with another excellent quarter in its e-mail encryption business,” said Chairman and CEO Rick Spurr. “Given the year-end push we saw in the fourth quarter, we’re particularly pleased with the high sustained level of demand.

“With more companies looking to obtain e-mail encryption capabilities, ZixCorp distinguishes itself for the rest of the industry with our easy-to-deploy and maintain Software as a Service (SaaS) architecture.”

Zix Corporation is the market leader for e-mail encryption services offering automated key management “in the cloud” for all customers, resulting in a scalable, reliable, easy-to-use, and simple-to-administer solution.

Meanwhile, the company maintains the largest e-mail encryption directory in the world, enabling seamless and secure communication among some 20,624,591 members. These customers include names like the FDIC, M&I Bank and Blue Cross.