Expanding on its traumatic 1989 (CI No 1,442), Nixdorf Computer AG said that its net loss equivalent to $641m – against a profit after extraordinary gains of $15.8m last time – was on turnover down 1.7% at $3,156m. Confidence was eroded much more severely in the West German market than abroad, and home market sales were down 7% to $1,560m, while foreign sales still managed to rise 5% to $1,596m to exceed those in the home market for the first time. Order backlog plunged 16% to $2,586m at the end of 1989, compared with the end-1988 figure. Research and development expenditure was flat at $316m, but capital investment plunged 23% to $577m. On the bright side, the company said it increased its share in the insurance market, and that sales of facsimile machines developed very positively.
