Cabletron to Fire 180 Workers at New Hampshire, Ohio Plants
Rochester, New Hampshire, March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Cabletron
Systems Inc. said it will fire 180 full-time manufacturing
employees because of plummeting sales of its older computer
networking equipment.
The firing of 120 workers at its Rochester, New Hampshire,
plant and 60 more in Ironton, Ohio, come a day after the company
reported a fiscal fourth quarter loss before charges of $6.3
million, or 4 cents a share. That compares with profit from
operations of $72.6 million, or 45 cents a diluted share, in the
year-earlier period.
The company said the loss was caused by weak sales of its so-
called shared-access equipment, which fell more than 70 percent
from a year ago, after larger rivals Cisco Systems Inc., 3Com
Corp. and Bay Networks Inc. introduced competing products.
Cabletron also has been hurt as many large corporate customers
buy more networking equipment from distributors than through
direct sales, traditionally a Cabletron asset.
''This is a company with a lot of problems,'' said Eric
Blachno, an analyst at Bear, Stearns & Co. who has a ''neutral''
rating on the company's stock.
Cabletron's revenue, which includes shared-access sales and
sales of newer, switch-based products, fell 18 percent in the
quarter ended Feb. 28 to $311.5 million from $380.6 million.
Shared-access sales contributed 11 percent of the company's
quarterly revenue, down from 20 percent in the third quarter,
Cabletron Chief Executive Don Reed said.
Reed said on a conference call that the company will try to
increase channel sales to 60 percent of overall sales by 2002, up
from 20 percent this quarter.
Cabletron, based in Rochester, New Hampshire, rose 3/8 to
15 5/16 in late morning trading.
You get that CC Number I posted to you earlier?
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