Datum Cites Several Factors for Decrease in Net Income

IRVINE —  Datum Inc., which makes timing instruments for the telecommunications and aerospace industries, reported net income of $60,000, or 2 cents a share, for 1995, down from the $936,000, or 34 cents a share, for 1994.

Revenue more than doubled to $67.3 million from $30.9 million. The company posted a fourth-quarter loss of $465,000, or 12 cents a share, contrasted with a profit of $103,000, or 2 cents a share, for the previous year’s final three months. Quarterly revenue reached a record $22 million, compared with $7.6 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Datum said its earnings were hurt by fourth-quarter expenses related to inventory devaluation and to employee relocation, termination costs and moving expenses from the pending closure of its Anaheim plant and consolidation of business in Irvine and San Jose. In addition, the company’s financial performance was hurt by last year’s $26.5-million cash-and-stock acquisition of Efratom Time and Frequency Products Inc. in Irvine.

Louis Horwitz, Datum’s chairman, said first-quarter revenue will be “somewhat below” the fourth-quarter sales but that the company will return to profitability.