Employees stay dedicated, silent
By Andrew Philips, Ottawa Sun
A cone of silence dropped over the Corel Centre yesterday
following Newbridge Networks' special staff meeting announcing
plans to cut more than 10% of its global workforce.
One man hinted he wouldn't comment because he feared word will
get back to those deciding on whose necks the axe will fall. "I'm
starting to wonder myself whether Big Brother is watching,' he said.
"Newbridge is a great company to work for,' said another. "I look
forward to working there (in the future).' Newbridge plans to lay off
700 employees worldwide, 470 of whom work at its Kanata facility.
"No comment' was the standard reply yesterday as dozens of the
company's 3,300 local employees left the meeting. None would even
give their names.
"We're dedicated to our company,' said a middle-aged man. "I'm not
saying anything more.'
Most surveyed wouldn't even acknowledge whether the meeting was
positive or negative.
Newbridge takes hit
Takeover rumours, restructuring and now a $9.6M
loss in court
By KEVIN BELL, Ottawa Sun
A JURY kicked Newbridge Networks Corp. while it was down
yesterday.
On a day when the company informed employees that more than
10% of them will soon be history, a jury in Delaware ruled that
Newbridge has infringed patents for data transmission belonging to
its main rival in the U.S. market.
The jury awarded Lucent Technologies Inc. $9.6 million US in
damages, which could be tripled by the trial judge.
After a three-week trial, the jury ruled that the infringement on five
Lucent patents was intentional, which could lead the judge to raise
the damages to $28.7 million when final arguments are completed.
But Newbridge downplayed the effect on the company yesterday.
Chief financial officer Ken Wigglesworth said the damages were part
of an interim ruling.
"We're confident the $9.6-million finding will not survive the rest of
the trial process," he told analysts.
"I don't want to characterize this as nothing," he said. "It's a bit of a
setback. But it doesn't change our ability to sell our equipment in the
States."
The ruling comes as Newbridge is trying to keep revenues afloat
while it loses market share to Lucent in the U.S. due to a lack of a
high capacity switch that zips data and voice along telephone lines.
Newbridge plans to ship a new 50-gigabit switch for trials before the
end of the year.
Despite the loss to its rival, analysts said the initial award is not too
severe for a company that has $900 million Cdn in its coffers.
"At this point, I think it's more of a moral victory for Lucent," said
Rob MacLellan of CT Securities.
Patrick Houghton, an analyst with Sutro & Co., said his rule of
thumb on patents is that each one is worth an average of $1 million
in revenue.
"If I were Newbridge, I'd pay the money and run," he said. "I'd pay
that money and be done with it."
Newbridge said it is confident the ruling will not survive an appeal.
Newbridge reveals plan for turnaround |
