Chaz,
re: Redundancy & Resiliency
"I don't think so, but there value chain has been absolutely decimated." ... How, in what way, but then, a modicum or specifics, sigh, sigh, sigh, ... Are you even serious in the slighest. >>
Some "specifics" for you on a rather unpleasant topic:
This is the status of the 3 American carriers and key members of Qualcomm's value chain that along with Qualcomm in June 1997 announced the development of third generation CDMA (cdma2000).
* At the height of the U.S. technology and economic boom in 2000, Lucent had 155,000 employees. A series of rolling layoffs has cut staff to 50,000, and further cuts would bring the company's total to about 40,000.
* Motorola says it will lay off another 7,000 people in addition to the 4,000 cuts announced in the first quarter.
* Nortel will cut 7,000 more jobs that previously anticipated. Nortel now expects to have 35,000 workers by the end of this year, instead of the company's previous target of 42,000 at the end of September. Nortel has steadily whittled away its workforce to swing back to profitability: At the start of 2001, the company had 94,000 employees.
These cutbacks are of course a result of insufficient revenue to sustain operations at current level. "Specific" analyses of this is presented here:
Message 17853100
Please let me emphasize that I am NOT saying that this is a result of these carriers backing cdmaOne/cdma2000, but I am saying one again that key members of Qualcomm's value chain have been decimated. This is NOT good for the industry.
>> Nortel Networks Cuts Estimates & Jobs
Kristy Bassuener
August 28, 2002
Wireless Week
news@2 direct
Struggling telecom-equipment maker Nortel Networks scales back its expectations for the current quarter, and now predicts as much as a 10 percent drop in third-quarter sales from the second quarter. Previously, the company predicted quarter-over-quarter revenue would be flat compared with the $2.77 billion in sales Nortel reported in Q2.
Carriers still aren't spending significant cash to pull the sector out of the doldrums, Nortel executives say. ''We continue to see reductions in near-term spending plans by service providers, especially in the United States,'' says Frank Dunn, Nortel's president and CEO. However, the company still expects some improvement of the bottom line, excluding nonrecurring items and other costs, compared with its second-quarter loss of $323 million.
The company also says it will cut 7,000 more jobs that previously anticipated. Nortel now expects to have 35,000 workers by the end of this year, instead of the company's previous target of 42,000 at the end of September. Nortel has steadily whittled away its workforce to swing back to profitability: At the start of 2001, the company had 94,000 employees.
After posting 10 straight quarterly losses, Nortel leaders now say the goal is to return to profit by the end of June 2003. The additional layoffs will help the company conserve cash, as well as drop its profit target to $2.6 billion in revenue rather than the previous target of $3.2 billion. <<
>> Nortel To Cut 7,000 Jobs As Spirent Talks Up 'Resilience'
August 29,2002
The Guardian (London)
The unremitting woes of the telecoms industry are forcing Canadian equipment-maker, Nortel Networks, to shed a further 7,000 jobs, cut its sales forecast and warn that the slump will continue well into next year.
Nortel, which employed 95,500 at the end of 2000, now expects to have 35,000 staff by the new year but intends to return to profitability by June next year.
An overnight statement by chief executive Frank Dunn triggered a 17% fall in Nortel's shares in early trading. Investors are also nervous that other groups would be forced to scale down their forecasts.
Mr Dunn said current quarter sales would be 10% lower than last year because US service providers above all were spending less - and were likely to continue doing so. Nortel originally thought sales would be "essentially flat" year-on-year.
He insisted that restructuring efforts would bring bottom-line profit improvements in the rest of the year, with a new break-even quarterly target set at below Dollars 2.6bn (pounds 1.7bn) compared with the current Dollars 3.2bn.
Nortel's fall from grace and that of its peers, such as Cisco and Lucent, over the past two years are still pummelling British telecoms companies such as equipment-testing firm Spirent which reported a 57% fall in pre-tax profits in the first-half from pounds 73.6m to pounds 31.4m.
Spirent's chief executive, Nicholas Brookes, insisted that the company had put in a "resilient" performance, pointing to a 15% improvement on the second half of last year.
"The telecommunications market shows no sign of improvement and remains unpredictable," he said. "In tough market conditions, Spirent has generated cash and increased market share and profitability."
The company said operating profits had risen 25% to pounds 34.9m compared with the second half of 2001, even with sales 9% down, and it had reduced net debt to pounds 143.4m.
Mr Brookes said: "We are keeping tight control of costs and will be in a strategically strong position when the market recovers."
He conceded that current sales are "flattish" and likely to remain so.
>> More Lucent Layoffs On The Way?
Kristy Bassuener
August 26, 2002
Wireless Week
news@2 direct
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Lucent Technologies likely will cut about 10 percent of its current workforce in the wake of shaky financial status. At the height of the U.S. technology and economic boom in 2000, Lucent had 155,000 employees. A series of rolling layoffs has cut staff to 50,000, and further cuts would bring the company's total to about 40,000, the reports indicate.
Lucent spokesman Bill Price would not comment directly on the figures in the reports, but pointed out that the company alluded to additional changes in its June 30 quarterly financial report. ''We've said we expect to get to 45,000 employees by the end of the year based on 7,000 reductions that we have planned. It also says we plan to further reduce our break-even point. We're still working through those plans,'' Price says. The company in its July 23 report said it would break even when it had $3 billion in sales, rather than the $3.5 billion previously predicted.
Lucent's customers also have been riddled with financial difficulties and bankruptcies, adding to the company's monetary headaches. In the most recent quarter ended June 30, Lucent reported its ninth straight quarterly loss of $7.9 billion on sales of $2.95 billion. Last month, the company said it was subject of an investigation underway at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark, N.J., over issues dating back to 2000. The deal in question was an accounting error related to a software licensing deal made with now-bankrupt Winstar Communications. A Lucent statement said the company is not the target of the legal query, but that it is cooperating with the investigators. <<
>> Motorola Slashes 7,000 More Jobs
By Kristy Bassuener
June 27, 2002
news@2 direct
Motorola today reaffirms its second-quarter and full-year financial guidance, and announces changes that further will reduce the company's head count. Executives in a conference call this morning confirmed the company expects to post a second-quarter loss of 4 cents per share on sales of $6.4 billion or more.
For the full year 2002, Motorola expects to return to profit excluding special items as well as posting earnings in the third and fourth quarters. Sales for the year are expected to be 5 percent to 10 percent lower than 2001.
Motorola says it will lay off another 7,000 people in addition to the 4,000 cuts announced in the first quarter. The goal, according to Chairman and CEO Chris Galvin, is to return the company to the size it had before the dot-com boom. ''The investment environment of the late 1990s may never repeat itself, because many of the business models so highly touted then never succeeded in the first place,'' Galvin says. ''This comprehensive restructuring purposefully returns Motorola to approximately its mid-1990s size.''
Going forward, Motorola will focus on what Galvin calls businesses that ''serve many real fundamental needs of the global society,'' including mobile phones, two-way radio products, public safety systems, mobile networks and digital and cable products. Although at midday the Dow Industrial Average, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes all remained down following WorldCom's announcement of billions in misrepresented losses, shares in Motorola rose more than 1 percent to $14.22. <<
Best,
- Eric - |
