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Strategies & Market Trends : LastShadow's Position Trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Suma who wrote (40246)	1/23/2001 7:24:59 PM
From: Jeff Jordan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43080

sorry to give you that impression....I'm scared as hell...<g> I've trimmed my position in case they screw us again... 01/23 17:56 Lucent to Take Charge, Cut Jobs and Have Sales Drop (Update1) By Erik Schatzker Murray Hill, New Jersey, Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Lucent Technologies Inc., the biggest maker of phone equipment, tomorrow will report its first drop in quarterly sales and provide details of job cuts and a restructuring charge. Last month, the company reduced for a third time its sales and earnings outlook for the first quarter ended Dec. 31. Excluding goodwill and other acquisition costs, Lucent said it expects a first-quarter loss of 25 cents to 30 cents a share on a 20 percent drop in sales. A year earlier, the company earned $1.1 billion, or 33 cents, on sales of $7.91 billion, Lucent said. Cutting jobs, eliminating products and writing down assets are part of Chief Executive Henry Schacht's plan to return Lucent to profitability by slashing $1 billion a year in costs. Investors aren't convinced Lucent can compete with Nortel Networks Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. or Juniper Networks Inc. in supplying equipment for high-speed data networks. ``Becoming profitable and putting into place a more sustainable business is a lot more achievable than becoming a competitor on equal footing with Cisco,'' said Glen Frey, money manager at Orbitex Management Inc., which holds Lucent shares in its $300 million Orbitex Info-Tech & Communications Fund. Lucent Chief Financial Officer Debby Hopkins said in October the company would cut an unspecified number of jobs. Lucent probably will eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce of 105,000, said Tom Lauria, an analyst at ING Baring Securities Inc., who has a ``hold'' rating on Lucent. Lucent has declined to forecast the size of its restructuring charge. A person familiar with Lucent's plans said in December the charge would be at least $1 billion. Shares of the Murray Hill, New Jersey-based company fell 81 percent last year. The stock has risen 39 percent this year, though is still at 1998 levels. It fell 25 cents to $18.81 today. Company Stumbled Lucent stumbled in 1999 after it fell behind rivals in developing a popular type of fiber-optic equipment. It tried to make up for a lack of new products by offering its equipment and software at lower prices. The board ousted CEO Richard McGinn in October after he cut profit forecasts in four of five quarters. Now, Lucent is trying to bounce back as spending on communications equipment is expected to slow this year. Lucent is forecast to lose 9 cents a share in its second quarter and 22 cents in fiscal 2001, according to the First Call survey. In fiscal 2002, Lucent is expected to earn 31 cents a share, First Call says. Schacht may want to consider more radical moves than cutting jobs or getting rid of products, Frey said. ``It's very, very difficult to turn around a company the size of Lucent,'' he said. ``So either selling off the pieces or breaking the company up would definitely help to unlock value.''