<<If anything slowed down switch sales, it was Y2K related delays in spending/upgrades. >>
You're making this up... McGinn himself repeatedly stated in the conference call that this was NOT Y2K-related in any significant way. Listen to the conference call at lucent.com, especially the question/answer segment, and you'll hear Rich state over and over again this shortfall was caused by poor execution, nothing less, nothing more. Apparently the company who "makes things that make communications work" doesn't communicate well with its own customers, or even with its own internal divisions.
And I'm glad someone else caught that headfake about issuing more shares. McGinn tries to explain that off by stating he didn't know about the shortfall until they added up the orders at the very end of the quarter, which further illustrates the lack of communication between management, sales force and customers. Gee, Mr. McGinn, you mean Nortel's 64 channel splitters have already made those 16 channel multiplexers you're trying to sell me obsolete... but you think I should buy yours anyway?... hmmm, I'd better think about this a bit...
McGinn and Peterson state repeatedly that there's nothing wrong with the market, that the HUGE shortfall is all their fault, but I don't see them offering to compensate MY loss from THEIR blunder out of the more than $30 million worth of insider sales in November alone... |
