17 September 2002 -- After nine consecutive quarterly losses, Lucent Technologies Inc expects sales for its fiscal Q4/2002 (to end-September) to fall 20-25%, from Q3's USD2.95bn to USD2.2-2.36bn. It says this is due to lower customer spending, particularly in North America. A year earlier, revenues were USD5.2bn.
Lucent has lowered its targeted quarterly revenue break-even rate from USD3.5bn to USD2.5-3bn, aiming to return to profit by the end of its fiscal 2003. Lucent had said in July that it needed to reduce the break-even level closer to USD3bn.
Lucent also said in mid-August that it would cut staffing from 50,000 to about 45,000 by end-2002. However, a reduction to 30,000-35,000 is said to be likely - about one-third the 106,000 it had in 2001. At the peak of the telecoms boom in 2000, the company employed 155,000.
Lucent will give an update on the impact on its headcount at its earnings announcement on 23 October.