I-mate, the creation of Glaswegian mobile phone entrepreneur Jim Morrison, saw another 38% wiped off its market value yesterday as it said a double dose of grim news would require a second strategic review inside a year.

I-mate, the creation of Glaswegian mobile phone entrepreneur Jim Morrison, saw another 38% wiped off its market value yesterday as it said a double dose of grim news would require a second strategic review inside a year.

Morrison, whose 76% stake in the company was worth £160m last January before a year of disastrous setbacks, saw its value crash to just £18m as i-mate shares dropped from 33.5p to 20.75p.

The company said one of its leading chip suppliers had been unable to meet its requirements, echoing the beginning of i-mate's troubles a year ago when it said one of its three new Taiwanese chip suppliers had failed to deliver as required. That followed a sparkling first year as a quoted company, with sales and profits up by 50%.

Morrison accompanied his severe profit warning last January with the promise that "a full review is being carried out to make sure this situation doesn't happen again".

Yesterday, however, i-mate was forced to admit that a supplier had "failed to supply its manufacturers with the required volume of chips over this quarter".

It went on: "In addition, a recent court ruling against the same chip supplier over IP infringements means that i-mate will not be able to sell some of its devices in the USA.

"These events will significantly disrupt its strategy for the US market there will be a material impact on sales in the final quarter of the current year and there are consequent costs that need to be written off."

The statement ended ominously: "The company is evaluating the precise financial impact for this financial year and beyond. Accordingly, the board is reviewing its strategic alternatives at this time."

Morrison commented: "This is hugely disappointing for the company and although we have devices which are not dependent on this chip set, it has a significant impact on the range of product we have to sell.

"We have no alternative but to review the strategic options for the company at this time."

Last month the AIM-listed group warned that its third-quarter sales had been "very slow" and reported a pre-tax loss of $29.4m (£14.8m) for the half-year, on revenue more than halved to $46.2m. But Morrison said he expected "an improved performance in the fourth quarter and beyond as our new products begin to ship in quantity".

That followed a profit warning last October, as well as a writedown related to the scrapping of a new product range. Morrison said then he was "delighted about the launch of our new models and the demand that they are now creating".

I-mate designs and brands mobile pocket PCs and smartphones similar to Vodafone's BlackBerry, although i-mates run on the Microsoft system.