Lucent Jettisons Jobs in Its Quest for Profitability
April 23, 2002
By KENNETH N. GILPIN
nytimes.com
Struggling to stanch losses in an extremely difficult operating environment, Lucent Technologies said yesterday that it planned to cut 6,000 more jobs — reducing the company to less than half its peak size — and might need to take additional steps to return to profitability.
At the same time, Lucent, the nation's largest manufacturer of telephone equipment, said it lost $495 million, or 16 cents a share, in the second quarter of its fiscal year, on revenue of $3.5 billion. The company has now lost money for eight consecutive quarters.
Still, the figures are a sharp improvement from the period a year ago, when Lucent posted a net loss of $3.7 billion, or $1.09 a share. But revenue in the period just ended was down 40 percent from the $5.9 billion recorded in the first three months of last year.
Lucent said that pro forma results, excluding restructuring costs and other one-time charges, were a loss of $631 million in the quarter, or 20 cents a share. That compares with a loss of $1.39 billion, or 41 cents a share, in the period a year ago.
Faced with slumping demand for its products, Lucent has slashed its payroll and cut operating expenses. The company said yesterday that it intended to pare its work force by the end of September to about 50,000 people, from 56,000 at the end of March. |
