Live Entertainment’s 4th-Quarter Profits Triple

LIVE Entertainment Inc., a supplier and retailer of home videos and other entertainment products, said its fourth-quarter profit more than tripled from a year earlier on a 47% increase in sales.

In the quarter that ended Dec. 31, LIVE’s net income soared to $13.7 million from $3.97 million a year earlier, and its sales climbed to $267 million from $181.1 million. The gains largely reflected higher home-video sales, including LIVE’s shipments of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--The Movie.”

However, Van Nuys-based LIVE said “a lack of hit audio products and weakened economic conditions in the retail sector” hurt results at some of its other units, such as its 144-store specialty retail division that includes the Strawberries and Waxie Maxie chains.

For 1990, LIVE’s profit jumped 31%, to $25.6 million from $19.4 million in 1989, and its annual sales surged 70% to $742.5 million from $437.3 million.