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Telecoms equipment maker Lucent Technologies will report a wider-than-expected loss for the fourth quarter and cut 10,000 more jobs. The company expects to report a loss, excluding charges and other items, of about USD0.20 a share for the quarter ended 30 September, wider than its previous projection of a pro-forma loss of USD0.45 a share. Lucent said it would record charges of about USD3 billion for a decline in pension assets and about USD1 billion for restructuring. The job cuts will bring staff numbers to around 35,000 by the end of fiscal 2003.
Meanwhile, telecoms equipment manufacturer Nortel Networks says it will report a drop in third-quarter revenue of about 36 percent from the year-earlier period when it posts its financial results on 17 October. CEO Frank Dunn is to inform employees that the company had revenue of approximately USD2.36 billion for Q3, in line with previous expectations. Last month, Nortel cut its Q3 forecast for the second time, saying revenue would fall around 15 percent in the quarter, down from Q2's USD2.77 billion.
Lexmark, the printing solutions supplier, is writing off a multi-million-dollar Oracle project. The company is taking a USD15.8 million charge to abandon the project, which involved customer relationship management (CRM) software. More details of Lexmark's reasons for discontinuing the project will become known when the company reports its third-quarter results on 21 October. Lexmark expects to post earnings of USD0.68 to USD0.70 per share and a 4 percent to 5 percent increase in Q3 revenue.
Virgin Mobile will officially cease its operations in Singapore this week. Virgin Mobile, jointly owned by Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, had spent around USD100 million establishing call centres and retail outlets in Singapore. The company had signed up 30,000 mobile customers in total, compared with SingTel's 1.5 million subscribers.
Hewlett-Packard is launching the HP Media Center, a PC that acts like a television. The computer, which will retail for around USD1,400, is based on the new Windows platform, Windows XP Media Center, which is specially designed for multimedia entertainment. The Media Center, which will be available by the end of this month, comes with remote control, television tuner, and the ability to record and play TV shows and digital music.
The movie and record industries are pressurising universities to stamp out file swapping by students, according to a report on CNET News.com. The Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and other copyright-owner trade groups sent a letter to over 2,000 university heads saying that large numbers of students were using college resources to violate federal law. The letter urges the universities to introduce consistent policies prohibiting copyright infringement, to monitor students' compliance with the policies and to use "effective remedies" against students or staff who flout the policies.
The US Federal Communications Commission has approved a technology for broadcasting digital radio within existing analog channels. The new technology, developed by iBiquity Digital, will improve audio quality and enable broadcasters to transmit additional data services. Listeners will have to purchase radios that can receive digital signals in order to hear the digital broadcasts. These radios will become available in 2003 and are expected to cost USD100 more than analog radios initially.
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