Troubled Kaypro Reports Annual Loss of $19.2 Million

Kaypro: The financially troubled Solana Beach computer manufacturer reported a $19.2-million net loss and total revenue of $21.8 million for the year ended Aug. 31. During the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 1988, Kaypro reported an $11.5-million net loss and $72 million in revenue.

Kaypro reported that shareholder equity slipped from a positive $3.2 million to a negative $16 million. Assets dwindled from $19.6 million on Aug. 31, 1988, to $3.9 million last Aug. 31.

Andrew Kay, Kaypro’s founder and chairman, Friday blamed the loss and drop in revenue on “sluggish market conditions, adverse publicity and the company’s receipt of a large number of intermittently defective integrated circuit chips.”

Kaypro on Monday announced that David Kay, who rejoined the company just two weeks ago as president and chief executive officer, was turning those duties over to a business consultant from New England.

David Kay, Andrew’s son, is turning day-to-day management of the company over to Roy Y. Salisbury, managing director of FCSGroup, which a Kaypro spokeswoman described in a press release as a “business consulting and management service firm.”

Kay initiated the management change because it was time for the firm to “assemble a new management team, one with a proven track record in financial and administrative restructuring,” according to the spokeswoman.

Andrew Kay, former president and chief executive officer, will continue as Kaypro’s chairman of the board. On Feb. 6, David Kay returned to Kaypro after what the company spokeswoman described as an “18-month hiatus during which time he served as an independent consultant.”