Higher Profit Margins, Strong Sales Boost Tandon

Tandon Corp., citing higher profit margins on its products and strong sales of high-performance computers, said it earned $7.2 million, or 12 cents a share, on sales of $80.3 million in the first quarter ended March 31.

The Chatsworth personal computer maker’s profit was up 39% from $5.1 million a year earlier. Sales were up 34% from the $59.8 million in the year-ago period.

Tandon results only include its continuing operations. In December, Tandon agreed to sell nearly all of its disk-drive data storage business to Irvine-based Western Digital, which paid $49 million cash and agreed to pay off $28 million in Tandon bills.

Separately, Foothill Capital told the Securities and Exchange Commission it may sell as many as 235,000 common shares of Tandon stock from time to time in an offering estimated to be worth as much as $528,750.

Foothill received 200,000 Tandon common shares two years ago as part of an $8 million loan package. Tandon has repaid the loan. Foothill also waived $209,000 in interest and fees for the additional 35,000 Tandon shares.