Supply-chain-management software major i2 Technologies Inc, whose shares have dropped 33 per cent in the past six months, said its board has formed a committee to consider options that may include sale of the company.

The board had formed a three-director committee to evaluate possible mergers, sales, joint ventures or acquisitions. The panel will be led by Jackson L Wilson Jr and will include directors Richard L Clemmer and Lloyd G Waterhouse.

The committee was formed as part of an ongoing review of the company. The review by J P Morgan Chase Securities of i2''s management, operations and strategy will end when the panel presents its recommendations to the board at the end of January.

Michael McGrath resigned as i2''s chief executive officer on 31 July, after the Dallas-based company reported that earnings for the quarter ending June were below analyst estimates, the second quarter in a row it had missed forecasts. He was replaced on an interim basis by Pallab Chatterjee.

The company had started a search earlier in the year for a replacement for McGrath, who was expected to retire at the end of 2007, when his contract expired.

The board has identified several candidates for chief executive officer and will name a permanent replacement for McGrath after the review is finished, company founder and chairman Sanjiv Sidhu said.

The company reported on Thursday 1 November that net income for the third quarter rose to $5.32 million or 17 cents a share, from $4.55 million or 15 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue, at $66.5 million, was lower than the company had previously forecast.

The company has boosted its forecast for the year. It now says it expects 2007 net income to fall to between 55 cents and 65 cents a share, and sales to drop to between $263.5 million and $266.5 million. Earlier, it expected net income to fall to between 43 cents and 58 cents a share, and revenue to decrease to between $260 million to $265 million.