Lu: Asia Growth 50% this yr.!
Lucent Says Data Networking Sales in Asia to Grow by 50 Percent
Hong Kong, June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Lucent Technologies Inc., the world's
No. 1 phone-equipment maker, said it expects Asia Pacific sales of its
newly acquired data networking unit to grow more than 50 percent this year.
The Murray Hill, New Jersey-based company last week completed its $25
billion purchase of Nasdaq-listed Ascend Communications Inc. to break into
the fast-growing data networking business.
Ascend, renamed InterNetworking Systems, generated sales of $1.5 billion
in 1998, up 27 percent from a year earlier. Sales are expected to grow by a
third to $2 billion this year. ''We are seeing very high growth in Asia
Pacific,'' Tony Wise, the vice president in charge of InterNetworking
Systems in the region, said in an interview. ''We will be in the same order
as last year.''
During the first half, Lucent Technologies signed ''several multimillion
dollar contracts'' to supply data networking products -- equipment that sends
data along the Internet at high speeds -- in China, potentially the biggest
market in Asia, Wise said.
It also received major equipment orders in Australia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea. |
