Consultant to Study Why AST Lost Big Money in ’95

IRVINE —  AST Research Inc., which posted heavy losses last year, will hire a consulting firm to review its operations and management.

The Irvine computer manufacturer agreed to the independent evaluation to help seal its deal with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which acquired a 40% stake in AST with a $377.5-million investment in the company. AST disclosed the consultant agreement in documents filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The agreement calls for the consultants to determine the causes of AST’s 1995 operating loss. AST, the world’s sixth-largest manufacturer of personal computers, posted a $99.3-million loss in the fiscal year ended July 1. The consultant will also study why AST failed to achieve the results outlined in its business plan, conduct a “full management diagnostic analysis,” and review AST’s organizational structure.

After completing the review, the consultants will recommend steps to remedy any managerial, organizational and operational problems that contributed to the poor 1995 performance. The recommendations will be made to a committee composed of AST Chairman Safi Qureshey, two Samsung representatives and an AST non-employee director.

Martha Toll-Reed, a Standard & Poor’s Corp. analyst, told Bloomberg Business News that AST’s problems in fiscal 1995 stemmed to a large degree from the company’s reliance on sales to consumers, the most-competitive and least-profitable segment of the personal-computer market. The company also lacks overseas sales channels.