Late Friday, Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA came out with first half figures showing that all three of the major continental computer companies are now bleeding red ink with an operating loss equivalent to $21.8m against a profit last time of $81.1m last time, and a pre-tax loss of $58.6m against a profit of $48.4m; sales were down 5.4% at $3,134m; the company blames the slow-down in demand and intensive price-cutting; Olivetti points out that averaging the figures of the top 20 US computer companies in the first half showed a loss amounting to 3.6% of turnover on a decline in sales; the Olivetti Systems & Networks subsidiary in the UK managed to do rather better than the group as a whole, with pre-tax profits of UKP4.0m on turnover up 15% at UKP75m.
