Harmonic Inc. didn’t have a very harmonic fall. The cable and broadband equipment vendor reported a net loss for the fourth quarter, due to various corporate charges and sales of lower-margin fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) products.

In its earnings report Thursday, Harmonic said it lost $2 million in Q4, after posting a $10.2 million profit a year ago. Net sales for the quarter dropped more than 20 percent to $63.7 million, versus $85.6 million in the year-earlier period.

The company’s Convergent Systems division, which designs, makes and markets digital headend systems, took the brunt of the hit. Its sales fell to $37.2 million, compared to $67.7 million a year earlier, although up slightly from $35.8 million in the previous period.

Harmonic blamed the division’s big year-over-year sales decline on “exceptionally large shipments to a cable customer and a satellite customer” that were recorded in the fourth quarter of 2004. It said unit sales rose slightly from the third quarter largely because of increased revenue from another cable operator for digital simulcast projects.