CompterLand Corp, which has come down to the wire to go public and then retreated more than once is going to have to remain private a while longer. The retail franchise giant recorded a loss of $13.9m for its third quarter to June 30, blaming Tiananmen Square and problems in Australia. The latter problems arose because it is having to take over the Australian operation, a joint venture with an exfranchise holder after losses were discovered by a company audit. The local firm was described as operating the 21 Australian outlets with an absence of elementary business sense, allowing inventory to run down while spending millions of dollars on illadvised advertising campaigns and turning in overoptimistic business reports. As a result, ComputerLand recorded a loss from Australia of $14.3m in the quarter, $15.7m in the nine months, although profits elsewhere reduced the ninmonth losses to $5.1m, on turnover of $1,900m. And in China, two trading companies that owed the company millions of dollars appeared to have closed down after the massacre of the students in Peking. ComputerLand also lost $900,000 in the second quarter as a result of Hong Kong employees shipping computers to China without getting export licences. Overall sales rose 28% to $639.7m in the quarter.
