Nortel announces $2.6B US loss for 2005, after restatements
Last Updated Mon, 01 May 2006 00:15:16 EDT
CBC News
Nortel Networks Corp. has released its results for 2005, and they are far worse than financial analysts had expected.
* INDEPTH: Nortel
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The troubled Toronto telecom-maker lost a whopping $2.6 billion US last year, more than 12 times its loss the year before. And it revised its revenue figure by $1.5 billion US, more than double the expected amount.
Nortel also announced that it has put aside $2.5 billion US to cover the cost of shareholder litigation.
* FROM MARCH 10, 2006: Nortel has more bookkeeping troubles
These figures were contained in Nortel's latest attempt to portray its accounts for 2003, 2004 and the first three quarters of 2005.
The restated results were quietly released at 10:14 p.m. EDT last Friday night long after North American markets closed for the weekend.
Nortel promised to restate its figures more than six weeks ago after uncovering revenue figures that were allocated to the wrong quarter. It said it found these mistakes while correcting earlier problems.
These figures, Nortel said, complete the company's regulatory filings for those 11 quarters.
Mike Zafirovski is promising timely reports in future. (Canadian Press)
"I now look forward to completing our first-quarter 2006 reporting and moving back to being a timely filer," said Mike Zafirovski, the recently appointed president and chief executive officer.
On Friday, Nortel said it lowered its revenue by $261 million US in 2003, $312 million US in 2004 and $520 million US in the first nine months of 2005.
Profit figures were lowered by $141 million US in 2003, $156 million US in 2004 and $164 million US in the 2005 period.
Nortel also went over its numbers for the period before 2003. It lowered revenue estimates by $384 million US and profit by $70 million US. |
