Advanced Interventional’s Allen Out : Resignation: Company won’t say what prompted president’s departure, but it comes shortly after layoff and low earnings report.

On the heels of a companywide layoff and projections of poor quarterly earnings, Advanced Interventional Systems Inc. said Wednesday that its president has unexpectedly resigned.

Company officials provided few details about the sudden departure of Tom Allen from the 6-year-old company, which manufactures and distributes a laser device used in heart surgery. They emphasized that Allen’s leaving was not connected to the layoff of 15% of the company’s staff, announced Oct. 5.

Allen’s last day was Friday. The announcement was issued Wednesday.

“It was pretty much unexpected,” said Richard Crosby, chief financial officer. He and other company officials would not say why Allen left or if he was forced out.

Crosby hinted, however, that the company may not have been happy with Allen’s performance.

“I think the company’s performance and our stock’s performance is public knowledge,” Crosby said. “Other than that, I can’t comment.”

The company, facing lower-than-expected earnings and delays in gaining federal approval for a new medical device, trimmed its work force earlier this month from 144 employees to 120.

In making that announcement, the company also issued a statement that third-quarter revenue was down about 16% to $3.5 million from projections of $4.7 million.

Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Wall will assume Allen’s duties. The company did not say how long Allen’s post will be vacant or whether it will be filled from the outside.

In a prepared statement, Wall said that “tightening the entire structure” of Advanced Interventional will help it pull out of its financial doldrums. Also, he said, the hiring of four salespeople, even though other departments are cutting personnel, will help in garnering new institutional sales.

The company is the only one of its kind that sells an “excimer laser” that is used to clear clogged arteries, a procedure that often makes dangerous heart bypass surgery unnecessary.

Company officials have said that the product could mean a lucrative future for the company if it can increase sales while holding down on other costs.

“I have never been more confident in our technology and its place in interventional cardiology,” Wall said in the press release.

Crosby said the company’s board of directors, which met Monday, has discussed severance terms with Allen. Details of those terms were not immediately available.

Meanwhile, the announcement forced a slight selloff of its stock on the NASDAQ market. The stock closed Wednesday at $2.63 a share, down 12.5 cents.