Alcatel-Lucent loss widens in third quarter

Joint venture infrastructure firm Alcatel-Lucent said Friday that net loss for the third quarter of 2009 widened to €182m, compared to a loss of €40m in the same period in 2008.

Revenues also fell from just over €4bn in the third quarter of 2008 to €3.7bn in the same period 2009, driven by a shortfall in carrier infrastructure sales, particularly 2G wireless access.

For the third quarter 2009, revenues for the Carrier segment were €2.23bn, a decrease of 14.6 per cent compared to €2.6bn in the year-ago quarter and a decrease of 6.4 per cent compared to €2.4bn in the second quarter 2009.

Wireless 3G growth was offset by a strong 2G decline, optics were impacted by a decline in terrestrial, while submarine networks enjoyed another quarter of strong growth. IP routing revenues were up and fixed NGN and IMS reported strong growth, albeit off a low base.

Chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, said: “We have achieved significant operational progress. We are rapidly reshaping our cost and expense structure, having achieved 80 per cent of our €750m target in annualized savings year to date. Against what remains a challenging market environment, we reiterate our view that our addressable market should be down between 8 per cent and 12 per cent at constant currency and that we will achieve an adjusted operating income around breakeven this year.”