SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY

MAI Basic Four Inc. said a partnership controlled by New York investor Bennett S. LeBow has completed its previously announced plan to invest $55 million in MAI Basic Four, a financially strapped Tustin computer maker. LeBow is chairman of MAI.

Under the plan, Brooke Partners LP will give MAI $30 million in cash and will invest another $25 million in a new class of MAI stock with restricted voting rights. Additionally, Brooke has agreed to guarantee some loan payments for MAI through Sept. 30, 1990.

In exchange for the investment, Brooke will get new common stock that will give it 54% of MAI’s shares outstanding.

MAI said that in order to allow shareholders to preserve their equity positions, it intends to offer non-transferable rights to purchase, on a pro-rated basis, 17.5 million common shares at $3.54 a share. MAI said it expects to hold the offering by March 30, 1990.

MAI reported a loss of $46.2 million and a 23% decline in revenue, to $86 million, for its third quarter ended June 30. The company attributed $25 million of that loss to expenses related to its unsuccessful bid to acquire Prime Computer Inc., a Natick, Mass., firm, in a protracted takeover battle that ended in August.