Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003032617
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO LENGTH: Short
The company, which will continue to operate and sell computers, is a victim of highly competitive market conditions, faulty components that led to costly warranty repairs, and ongoing management problems. Its bankruptcy filing comes only two weeks after it named management consultant Roy Y. Salisbury as chief executive.
Buoyed by its once-popular portable Kaypro personal computer, sales of the company, based in nearby Solana Beach, skyrocketed to $119.6 million in 1984 from $5.5 million in 1982. But it has since been buffeted severely. Last month, it announced a 1989 loss of $19.4 million on sales of $21.8 million, losses that brought its accumulated deficit in recent years to $44.1 million.
Sales of the Kaypro portable computer, which was based on the now-outdated CPM operating system, began to erode in the mid 1980s with the rising predominance of the DOS operating system incorporated in International Business Machines personal computers and their clones. Kaypro replaced it with new models that sold well for awhile but failed to make a profit.
by CNB