Financier LeBow Sells His MAI Systems Stake

IRVINE â€”  Controversial Miami financier Bennett S. LeBow, criticized for his management of MAI Systems Corp. and other companies, sold his remaining stake in MAI for $3.3 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Thursday.

LeBow, who last year tried unsuccessfully to force RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. to spin off its food unit, sold 503,933 shares of MAI at $6.62 a share. LeBow, who once controlled 82% of the company, had been selling his holdings in the Irvine company since leaving in 1995.

The liquidation of LeBow’s stock came a day after the company announced the appointment of George Bayz as its new chief executive.

LeBow acquired MAI Basic Four, the predecessor company, through an investment partnership in 1985 and immediately launched a long, costly, hostile bid for Massachusetts-based Prime Computer, which was three times MAI’s size. He failed when Prime eventually was sold to a white knight.

Still, he pushed MAI to become a high-flying computer maker with 4,000 employees. But years of wrenching financial difficulties, hundreds of layoffs and turmoil in the top ranks eventually led the company into bankruptcy in early 1993.

It emerged late that year as a smaller, profitable software publisher and computer maintenance company--but LeBow was no longer chief executive. He remained as chairman until May 1995 and as a director until the following October.

Another LeBow company, New Valley Corp., also went bankrupt, and his Brooke Group Ltd. in Miami lost money for years and was forced to restructure its $400 million in debt.