Live Reports Quarterly Profit of $1.6 Million

Live Entertainment Inc., a Van Nuys videocassette distributor with a long history of financial trouble, earned $1.6 million in the third quarter, but only after logging a one-time gain from the sale of its majority interest in a German video distributor.

Without the gain, Live would have lost $1.32 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30. A year earlier, the company lost $6.63 million.

Live’s third-quarter sales totaled $40.1 million, up 19% from $33.8 million in sales a year before.

For the first nine months of 1995, Live had a profit of $7.56 million, in contrast to a year-earlier loss of $10.8 million. Its nine-month sales grew 32%, to $107 million from $81.3 million.