Profitability Restored to MAI Systems : Computers: A restructuring plan helps the Irvine software publisher, which has emerged from Chapter 11 proceedings.

IRVINE — MAI Systems Corp., once a high-flying computer maker with 4,000 employees in the 1980s, has emerged from seven months of Chapter 11 proceedings as a smaller but profitable software publisher and computer maintenance company.

The Irvine company said Tuesday that a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Wilmington, Del., approved its restructuring plan on Nov. 18.

The company’s four-year restructuring has converted it from a maker of business computers to a computer maintenance and software publishing concern with 1,200 employees.

The company also reported a third-quarter profit of $2.3 million, or 7 cents a share, compared with a loss of $169.6 million, or $5.26 a share, for last year’s third quarter. Revenue fell 72% to $18.9 million from $67.5 million a year earlier.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, MAI reported net income of $86.1 million, or $2.57 a share, including a one-time gain of $56.9 million from the foreclosure sale of its European operations. That compares to a loss of $180.5 million, or $5.67 a share a year ago. Revenues for the nine months were $97.2 million, down 52% from $202.5 million a year ago.

Under the reorganization plan, New York financier Bennett LeBow’s control of the company shrank from 82.3%, held by his BGLS Inc. holding company, to 47.4%. LeBow remains MAI’s chairman.

The company’s $77-million debt--accumulated during the company’s rapid expansion during the 1980s--has been nearly eliminated as most creditors accepted shares in the company in exchange for forgiving the debt. Trade creditors control 26.6% of the stock, and senior debt holders have 26%.

The company attributed the drop in revenue to the elimination of revenues as a result of the foreclosure sale of its European operations in March. U.S. and Canadian secured bankers forgave MAI’s $84 million in debt and in exchange took control of MAI’s European subsidiaries, which are now operating independently as European Applications Systems Inc.

Peter S. Anderson, president and chief executive, said in a statement that the thinned-down company now carries a minimal debt load, has positive cash flow and is positioned to compete in a few markets where it can sell custom software such as the hotel industry and manufacturing.

Though the company thrived for more than two decades, technological obsolescence, high debt and an abortive takeover of a computer industry rival in 1988 sent MAI into its tailspin.

MAI now operates four businesses: a Latin American computer maintenance and software subsidiary, a North American computer software and maintenance business, a hotel reservation systems subsidiary and a subsidiary that makes software for factory control.

The company moved its corporate office in March from Tustin to Irvine and drastically slashed its headquarters staff from 794 employees two years ago to just 16. The company’s pre-bankruptcy management team, headed by Anderson, is largely intact.