The Associated Press October 12, 1983, Wednesday, AM cycle TI Will Not Introduce New Home Computer This Year SECTION: Business News LENGTH: 694 words DATELINE: DALLAS Texas Instruments Inc. confirmed Wednesday it will not introduce a new home computer this year, asserting it never intended to despite reports to the contrary. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both reported Wednesday that Texas Instruments canceled plans to introduce the new machine, the 99-8, this year as a successor to its current 99-4A home computer, whose poor sales earlier this year resulted in a $119 million loss for Texas Instruments in the second quarter. "About the 99-8 ... it's speculation from the outside," said Texas Instruments spokesman Norman Neureiter. "There has never been such a product announced. We made the decision that there would be no new computer console introduced to the market this year and we'll be concentrating our efforts on 99-4A home computer. "The company has never officially announced such a product or said when it may be available. Those are the facts from the company's point of view," Neureiter said. "Some people felt strongly about knowledge on the 99-8 to write about it. The rumor went through the business community .. I can't describe something which doesn't exist. "Through the Christmas season we'll be concentrating on the 99-4A," Neureiter said. "We have the largest TV merchandising, emphasizing the utility of this machine in education, in the home ... a head start for students." Last month, however, the Journal had said Texas Instruments was soon expected to unveil the 99-8, and it quoted some of the company's distributors as describing the machine as having a microprocessor that was much faster than the one used in the 99-4A. The newspaper also said the 99-8 was expected to carry a price of between $200 and $300, compared with about $100 for the 99-4A. Michele S. Preston, who follows home computers for the investment firm L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin in New York, said, "I don't think anybody expected TI to come out with a 99-8 this year." Egil Juliussen, chairman of the Richardson, Texas-based research house Future Computing Inc., said the lack of a new Texas Instruments home computer was unlikely to hurt the company's financial performance in the current quarter. "A new product would have been nice, but it's not required," Juliussen said. "They'll probably do quite fine this last quarter." This past summer, Texas Instruments tried to cut its losses by laying off about 1,000 employees and hiring a new manager, Peter A. Field from Procter & Gamble Co., for the consumer-electronics division that makes the home computer. However, the company's home-computer sales in July and August lagged even revised projections, Mark Shepherd, chairman and chief executive, said last month in remarks for a meeting with institutional investors. Shepherd said then that if sales lagged further, it "would mean additional risk of further operating losses and inventory write-downs and write-offs, and could put Texas Instruments in a significant loss position for the year." Hence, there is some doubt among industry observers as to whether Texas Instruments, relying on just the 99-4A and its related software and peripheral equipment, can make inroads against other home-computer makers in the heavily competitive industry. Miss Preston said she expects Texas Instruments to remain in the home computer business. "But I say that with a low level of confidence," she said. Wall Street analysts are not entirely negative on Texas Instruments, considering that consumer electronics accounts for less than 10 percent of the company's business. Texas Instruments also is a leading maker of semiconductors and is heavily involved in defense electronics, and in the first half of 1983 its revenue hit $2.7 billion. John M. Geraghty of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., for example, is forecasting a loss for the company for the full year, but is still recommending the stock because of the promising signs for the non-home computer operations. The lack of a new home computer apparently had little effect on investors Wednesday, as Texas Instruments' common stock climbed $3.625, to $122.875 a share, in an otherwise down market on the New York Stock Exchange.