BRAMPTON, ONT. April 25 /PRNewswire/ - Nortel Networks(x) (NYSE/TSE: NT)
today reported results for the first quarter of 2000 prepared in accordance
with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Revenues increased 48 percent to US$6.32 billion for the first quarter of
2000 from US$4.29 billion in the same period in 1999. Net earnings from
operations applicable to common shares(a) for the quarter were US$347 million,
or US$0.23 per share on a fully diluted basis, compared to US$193 million, or
US$0.14 per share on a fully diluted basis, for the same period in 1999, an
increase in earnings per share from operations of 64 percent. Including
Acquisition Related Costs(a) and one-time gains and charges, Nortel Networks
recorded a net loss applicable to common shares in the first quarter of 2000
of US$730 million or US$0.52 per share.
Nortel Networks outstanding growth in the quarter reflected the
continued market leadership for our Optical Internet, Wireless Internet and
high speed Internet access solutions,'' said John Roth, president and chief
executive officer, Nortel Networks. ``Since the beginning of the year, we
achieved a number of significant milestones in our ongoing efforts to extend
our leadership in key market segments and to streamline our operations,
including:
- OPTICAL CAPACITY IMPLEMENTATION: The US$400 million capacity expansion
announced in November 1999 is coming on stream as planned and another
US$260 million investment was announced in February to provide even
more capacity by year end to meet customer demand.
- GLOBAL OPTICAL INTERNET LEADERSHIP: Revenues grew more than
150 percent in the quarter over the same period last year as we
continued to see strong demand for high speed optical solutions. We
further strengthened our position in the marketplace and continued to
drive technology discontinuities with the announced acquisitions of
Xros, a provider of fully photonic switching solutions, and CoreTek, a
developer of tunable lasers and next generation tunable optical
components .
- STRONG MOMENTUM IN WIRELESS INTERNET: Mobility revenues grew more than
45 percent in the quarter compared to the first quarter 1999 with
renewed growth in South America and some key new contract announcements
such as the deployment by BLU S.p.A. of a nationwide digital wireless
network with packet-based, IP (Internet Protocol) backbone in Italy.
We continue to advance the next generation solutions completing a
series of landmark third generation (3G) wireless calls, including the
industry's first wireless packet data sessions using cdma2000 1XRTT in
the quarter.
- CONTINUED MOMENTUM FOR HIGH-SPEED ACCESS SOLUTIONS: Revenue growth was
above 50 percent again this quarter over the same period last year with
momentum across the portfolio. We further strengthened our position in
the broadband dial access market with the acquisition of Promatory, a
leading developer of next generation Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
platforms for high speed Internet access.
- FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE IN EMERGING MARKETS AND SECOND WAVE OF eBUSINESS:
We announced that EINSTEINet will utilize our professional service
capabilities to create their Internet data center infrastructure in
Germany. We launched the Clarify eBusiness Applications unit,
combining the recent acquisitions of Clarify and Periphonics with
Nortel Networks' own capabilities in customer contact centers. It will
provide enterprises and service providers with business-to-business
(B2B) applications and services for managing customer relationships and
building virtual Internet marketplaces.
- ONGOING STREAMLINING INITIATIVES: We announced the proposed
outsourcing/divestiture of certain electronics manufacturing services
to Solectron Corporation, the final phase of our operations
streamlining strategy outlined in January 1999, and the agreement with
PricewaterhouseCoopers to assume the operations of certain corporate
services, including payroll, HR Info Centres and capital services.
Comparing 2000 to 1999, we now see the overall market growing in the 20
percent range, up from our previous view of 14 to 15 percent. With our market
leadership in a number of the high growth segments, strong order input with
orders exceeding revenues again this quarter, and the incremental increases in
revenues that will result from our majority owned position in certain joint
ventures, we expect that our revenue growth in 2000 over 1999 will be in the
30 to 35 percent range, up from our previous view of 20 to 21 percent, and
that our growth in EPS from operations in 2000 compared with 1999 will be
around 30 percent,'' said John Roth. |
