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Lucent Technologies Inc. reported revenues of $1.9 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2003, an 18 percent decline from revenues posted the previous quarter.
The decline in revenues was largely credited to lower sales volume in the companys mobility division, driven by reduced spending by customers in North America and by an unexpected delay in network acceptance by a customer outside the United States, Pat Russo, chairman and CEO, said in a teleconference this morning.
“This quarters top line is clearly disappointing,” Russo said. “Clearly, we hit a revenue speed bump.”
Lucent revenues are closely tied to the quarterly spending patterns of North American customers, and while the mobility market offers tremendous growth opportunity, service providers continue to face economic pressures and their deployment of 3G networks has slowed, Russo said. Mobility revenues were reported at $862 million, a 36 percent decrease from the previous quarter.
“The pace and timing of wireless deployment and investments continue to be difficult to predict,” she said.
On the wireline side of the business, Lucent experienced revenue stability, and revenue from services grew modestly, Russo said. In the Integrated Network Services division, revenues were $1.06 billion, a 2 percent increase over the previous quarter, but a 22 percent decrease compared with one year ago.
The Murray Hill, N.J., vendor is pursuing new opportunities in government contracts, services and mobility offerings, and hopes to find new prospects in enterprise offerings as well, Russo said.
The companys decision this spring to partner with Juniper Networks Inc. has shown new opportunities in unified data and optical network solutions, she said.
Lucent reported a net loss of $254 million for the quarter, down from the $351 million loss posted in the previous quarter, which Russo characterized as “relative stability” in the bottom line. The figure represents a substantial improvement over a net loss posting of $8.03 billion in the third quarter one year ago.
Included in the net loss are a $33 million charge for legal settlements in the companys shareowner litigation and a $35 million charge for “an impairment of goodwill” regarding multiservice switching products.
Russo said that Lucent plans to return to profitability as soon as possible in fiscal 2004.