October 12, 1984

Qantel is the computer system of winners - and losers. Qantel Inc. manufactures computer equipment and programs that are used by 12 of the 28 teams in the National Football League - including the teams that played in the last four Superbowls - as well as others in professional and college baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer. While some 10,000 of Qantel's systems have been installed worldwide, its sports applications are its best known. The company, in fact, is the brightest glimmer in an otherwise gloomy picture at the Mohawk Data Sciences Corporation, the troubled Parsippany, N.J., electronic data-processing company that lost $52.9 million in the last fiscal year and whose chief executive resigned on Monday. The Qantel subsidiary, which Mohawk acquired in early 1981 and which operates with considerable autonomy in Hayward, Calif., may be attractive enough to spark interest in Mohawk as a takeover candidate, analysts say.

The ailing Financial Corporation of America will cut its staff by 20 percent and sell such items as company jets and apartments in an attempt to become a smaller but more efficient organization, William J. Popejoy, chairman, said today. The streamlining will trim 1,500 employees from Financial's staff of 7,500. It also involves the sale of five of the company's nine aircraft, 41 apartments maintained for employee use and 475 company automobiles. A planned new headquarters has been scrapped, saving $45 million.

An article in Business Day Oct. 3 about the indictment of two California importers charged with violating copyrights held by Apple Computer Inc. incorrectly characterized the legal action. It appears to mark the first time Federal criminal charges for copyright infringement have been brought in a case involving computer piracy.

Companies Six major banking companies reported better earnings than had been expected. Manufacturers Hanover, J. P. Morgan, Chemical, Security Pacific, Marine Midland and Irving all reported increases in aggregate net income; First Chicago's announcement last week that it would post a loss had prompted speculation that Federal regulators were becoming stricter and that other banks would report losses as well. Most of those reporting yesterday did substantially increase their reserves for loan losses. (Page D1.) I.B.M.'s net income rose 21.7 percent in the third quarter, to $1.59 billion, continuing the company's strong growth of the last few years. But analysts had hoped for more, and I.B.M.'s stock fell $1.625, to $120.25. Motorola's earnings increased 87.9 percent, to $124 million, and Intel's income more than doubled, to $70 million. But the slowdown in the growth of the semiconductor business set off a decline in the stocks of several companies. (D1.)

The Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Jaroslav Seifert, a Czechoslovak poet, the Swedish Academy announced today. The award to Mr. Seifert, who is 83 years old and considered his country's national poet, cited work which, ''endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness, provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man.'' Mr. Seifert, the first Czech to win the award for literature, is greatly loved and respected in his own country, the academy noted, and has begun to achieve international recognition as well, in spite of the disadvantage of writing in a language that is little known outside his country. His work is translated and he is regarded as a poet of current interest. Nearly 30 volumes of his collected poems have been published.