Black & Decker Tech Unit Helps Boost Litton’s Profit 11%

Litton Industries Inc. said Wednesday that its fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 11%, reflecting the Woodland Hills-based company’s 1996 acquisition of a Black & Decker technology unit.

For the quarter ended Jan. 31, the electronics and shipbuilding company reported net income of $36.2 million, or 76 cents a share, up from $32.7 million, or 68 cents, in the year-ago period.

Revenue rose 30%, to $960.5 million from $739.4 million.

Litton was expected to earn 77 cents a share, the average estimate of seven analysts polled by IBES International Inc.

Litton stock rose 12.5 cents to close at $443.125 on the New York Stock Exchange.

In February 1996, Litton purchased PRC Inc.--a supplier of computer systems, primarily to the U.S. government--from Black & Decker Corp. for $425 million.

That acquisition helped boost revenue from Litton’s advanced electronics operations to $601.1 million from $357.9 million. Revenue from the company’s electronics components operations rose to $123.1 million from $108.5 million.

Profit from the advanced electronics operations rose to $38.6 million from $28.1 million, while profit from the components businesses climbed to $16.8 million from $11.2 million.

Revenue at the company’s Pascagoula, Miss., Ingalls Shipbuilding unit fell to $250.5 million from $286.2 million. Profit at the shipyard rose to $29.9 million from $29 million.

Ingalls’ primary business is making ships for the Navy. Earlier this week, the Navy said it was considering shifting $2.8 billion in destroyer work from General Dynamics to Ingalls.

Without the extra work, Ingalls could fire as many as 2,000 workers at its Mississippi shipyard by the end of the century, losing personnel needed to remain competitive on defense contracts, analysts said.

Ingalls has acknowledged that it has been in talks with the Navy on ways to prevent work force cuts.