Xerox Corp. Lost $736 Million in 4th Quarter, $1.02 Billion in Year

Xerox Corp. said Friday that it lost $736 million for the fourth quarter and $1.02 billion for the year, citing one-time charges for selling its financial services businesses and adopting new accounting standards.

The fourth-quarter loss amounted to $7.80 a share, contrasted with profit of $91 million, or 73 cents a share, a year ago.

For the year, the loss amounted to $11.29 a share, contrasted with net income of $454 million, or $3.91 a share, for 1991.

Total revenue for the quarter increased 7.1% to $5.12 billion, compared to $4.78 billion for the same period a year ago. For the year, total revenue was up 2.4% to $18.26 billion, from $17.83 billion in 1991.

The loss was expected after Xerox’s announcement Jan. 18 that it plans to return to its core mission as a copier maker by selling its three remaining financial services businesses: Crum and Forster, a property-casualty insurance unit; Furman Selz, an investment banking unit, and Xerox Life, a life insurance unit.

Xerox said then that it would take a one-time, after-tax charge of $778 million in the fourth quarter to get out of financial services. The company also said it would take $650 million in one-time charges related to the adoption of new accounting standards.