LOS ANGELES COUNTY - News from Nov. 5, 1986

By DANIEL AKST

Nov. 5, 1986 12 AM PT

PerfectData said it ousted founder C. Paul Davis as president and chief executive and replaced him with Lee R. Mannheimer.

“The board felt PerfectData’s operations really hadn’t improved the way they should have,” said Richard M. Drysdale, chairman of the Chatsworth computer accessories concern.

Mannheimer, 43, worked for Vivitar Corp. in Santa Monica for 10 years, most recently as vice president and general manager of Vivitar Computer Products.

Drysdale called Mannheimer an operations specialist. He said Davis, who is in his early 50s, agreed to the change and will stay on as a director.

PerfectData lost $174,000 on sales of $1.1 million in its second quarter ended Sept. 30. That was an improvement from a year earlier, when its ill-fated floppy-disk business contributed to a loss of $3.6 million on sales of $1.3 million.

For the year ended March 31, PerfectData lost $4.5 million on sales of $5.5 million.

Davis, who founded PerfectData 11 years ago, also was chairman until last fall. He couldn’t be reached for comment.