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French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel reported lower first-quarter losses but said it plans to record a full-year operating profit, partly due to cost cuts. Alcatel, who along with other telecom equipment makers has suffered from weak demand in the past 24 months, reported an operating loss of EUR343 million, down from an EUR368 million fourth-quarter loss, and well behind a profits of EUR132 million for the year-ago period. Quarterly sales dropped 32.7 percent from the previous quarter to EUR4.3 billion.
On the bright side, Alcatel cut its net loss to EUR836 million, compared to net losses of EUR1.498 billion in Q4. The company said it sees no short-term recovery in the industry.
The woes in the telecom industry continued as Mississippi-based WorldCom on Thursday posted a lower first-quarter profit, claiming that falling prices and cutbacks by corporate customers were to blame. WorldCom, who's shares are down over 40 percent since last Thursday, said it earned USD130 million in the first quarter, down from USD594 million a year earlier. Those figures include the results from MCI Group, its consumer long-distance business, which trades as a separate stock.
WorldCom Group, the company's data and Internet division, posted a net profit of USD184 million, or USD0.06 share, down from USD532 million, or USD0.018 a share, a year ago. The other side of the company, MCI Group, posted a net loss of USD54 million, or USD0.45, compared with pro forma earnings of USD62 million or USD0.54 a year ago.
Sony Corp, the maker of Playstation and Playstation 2, reported a near nine percent drop in profits for its last fiscal year, with strong earnings in its video-game and film businesses. Sony's net income amounted to YEN15.3 billion (USD119 million) for the fiscal year that ended in March, compared to YEN16.8 billion a year earlier. For the quarter ended in March, Sony recorded a loss of YEN12.8 billion (USD99 million), compared to a profit of YEN16 billion for the same quarter a year ago. Sales were down three percent in its electronics sector, but its video-game unit saw a massive 52 percent hike in revenues.
Japan's chip making and electronics giants all continued to suffer over the last quarter partly due to massive costs associated with restructuring.
Fujitsu said that for fiscal year ending 31 March 2002, semiconductor and telecommunications-related operations were still losing money. The company recorded a consolidated operating loss of YEN74.4 billion (USD560 million) for the fiscal year, compared with an operating profit of YEN244 billion (USD1.9 billion) the previous year. The company blamed the losses on the US economic slowdown last year, which affected Japan as well as the rest of Asia and Europe.
Toshiba Corp, meanwhile, posted a net loss of YEN254.02 billion (USD1.96 billion) on a 9.4 percent decline in sales to YEN5.394 trillion. These figures come in well behind its net profit from one year ago of YEN96.17 billion on sales of YEN5.951 trillion. The company now says that it will be profitable across the board this year and expects the semiconductor market to rebound this year.
The Nippon Electric Company also suffered, reporting a loss of YEN312.02 billion on a near six percent drop in sales to YEN5.1 trillion for fiscal 2001 compared with a year ago. In the previous fiscal year, NEC posted a net profit of YEN56.6 billion on sales of YEN5.4 trillion. NEC also said it planned to return to profitability in the current fiscal year.
The big technology research companies also saw losses mount starting with Forrester Research Inc. which on Wednesday reported a first quarter net loss of USD6.1 million, or USD0.26 per share, compared to income of USD4.9 million, or USD0.20 per diluted share, in Q1 2001. But the firm's stock surged ahead as Forrester said second-quarter revenue would be around USD25 million and pro forma earnings per share will be in the region of USD0.13. The company also estimated revenues for 2002 at USD100 million to USD105 million.
Meanwhile, Gartner on Wednesday reported its fiscal second quarter results with net loss falling from the previous year. Gartner said that its net loss for the quarter ending 31 March narrowed to USD4.3 million, or USD0.05 a share, compared to a loss of USD53.6 million, or USD0.62 a share a year earlier. Revenue fell to USD201.1 million from USD227.3 million a year earlier. For the next quarter the company, which specialises in industry predictions, says it plans to earn between USD0.13 to USD0.15 a share with revenue between USD234 million to USD243 million.
Finally, Web software maker Macromedia recorded losses that were smaller-than-expected on Wednesday to end its fiscal year. The maker of tools for creating Web pages and applications, reported a net loss of USD80.5 million, or USD1.37 per share, for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2002, which ended 31 March.
These figures, which came in better than analysts had expected, compare with a loss of USD21.8 million, or USD0.42 a share, in the same period a year ago, and USD42.9 million, or USD0.74 a share, in the previous quarter. Full year losses ballooned to USD305.9 million, or USD5.26 per share, compared with a profit of USD13.4 million, or USD0.24 a share, for the previous year.
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