Sales continue decline as telecom gear company continues to see weak spending by customers.
July 23, 2003: 7:23 AM EDT
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. posted its 13th straight quarterly loss Wednesday amid weak spending by telephone companies.
The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company reported a net loss, including preferred dividend payments, in its fiscal third quarter of $295 million, or 7 cents a diluted share, compared with a net loss in the year-ago quarter of $8.07 billion, or $2.35 a diluted share.
Sales in the quarter ended June 30 fell to $1.96 billion from $2.95 billion last year, and were down 18 percent from the previous quarter.
Analysts had expected Lucent to post a loss of 6 cents a share, according to a survey by research firm First Call.
Last week, Lucent, one of the world's largest telecom equipment makers along with Canada's Nortel Networks and France's Alcatel, said it would not meet its target to return to profit in its current fiscal year due to weakness in the wireless markets.
It also forecast a wider-than-expected loss in the third quarter, of 6 cents to 8 cents a share, on sales of about $1.97 billion. Lucent blamed the revenue decline on its North American wireless business and delayed acceptance of a contracted job by one of its customers.
Excess network capacity, built during the heady days of the Internet boom, and slack customer demand have forced carriers to slash spending.
Lucent (LU: Research, Estimates) has been a poster child for the telecom equipment industry's struggles, slashing jobs and selling noncore assets, while ringing up almost $12 billion in net losses in its 2002 fiscal year. It now expects to return to profit sometime in fiscal 2004, which begins in October.
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