MAI Basic Four Reports Profits of $3.3 Million

Citing strong sales of new products, MAI Basic Four Inc. Thursday announced first-quarter profits of $3.3 million. For the period ended Dec. 31, 1985, the once-faltering Tustin computer maker had sales of $65.1 million.

The announcement marked the third consecutive quarterly profit for Basic Four, which also just completed its third full quarter under its aggressive new owners.

Comparable prior-year sales and earnings results were not released because Basic Four considers that its operations began in late January, 1985, when the company was purchased by its current majority owner, Bennett LeBow, a New York investor.

Once a high-flying Wall Street darling and an acknowledged pioneer of mid-sized business computers, Basic Four slipped badly in the early 1980s and fell behind its competitors. By late 1984, the company was awash in $10 million of red ink and on the sales block.

The company was purchased for $105 million by LeBow who immediately slashed staff and trimmed operations. LeBow’s strategy has called for the company to sell its computers to specific business groups, such as hotel operators, rather than attempting to compete with the full array of general-purpose business computers.