AST suffers loss despite backing

Despite financial bailouts from major shareholder Samsung, AST Research reported a worse loss than Wall Street had expected.

The company's Q3 net loss was $135.3 million or $2.41 per share, 40 per cent worse than the same time last year.

AST received a further $200 million in credit from Samsung Electronics, which holds 49 per cent stake in the company, to add to a series of financial injections totalling $678 million that began early last year.

The loss included a $21.6 million charge for the 1993 acquisition of Tandy's manufacturing operation. Without this charge, the deficit would have been almost $20 million greater than last year. But turnover crept up by one per cent to $408.5 million, reversing five quarters of turnover decline.

AST has been affected by price wars and the defection of senior managers.

Samsung increased its influence on the running of the company, which led to the departure of CEO Ian Diery and CFO Joseph Norberg.