Litton Net Slides 76% in Year, 60% in Quarter

Litton Industries said Thursday that its net income was off 76% for the year and 60% in the fourth quarter, primarily due to writeoffs, depressed oil prices, foreign competition in its microwave oven business and interest expenses.

For its full fiscal year, the company netted $71.1 million on revenue of $4.52 billion, compared to fiscal 1985, when it earned $299.5 million on revenue of $4.59 billion. Litton earned $30 million on revenue of $1.14 billion for its fourth quarter ended July 31, compared, to a year earlier, when it had a profit of $76.1 million on revenue of $1.12 billion.

Fourth-quarter results included a $17-million settlement by its Clifton Precision special devices division, which pleaded guilty to defrauding the government and covering up a practice of lying about how much it cost to produce military equipment.

That settlement came on the heels of a third-quarter writeoff of $49 million on its Saudi Arabian air defense program. The Clifton and Saudi operations are both in Litton’s advanced electronics division.