February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
Lucent Technologies, the New Jersey-based telecoms manufacturer posted third-quarter loss of $3.25 billion today, and announced a worldwide job cull of 20,000 employees.
The cuts will almost certainly affect employees in Ireland, where Lucent has 1,000 staff in Dublin and Bray.
Lucent is the world’s biggest maker of telecoms equipment and its poor showing – much worse than analysts had predicted – is further evidence of a downturn in the US economy, which economists are as yet hesitant to call a recession.
On Wednesday, Compaq Computers will post its earnings, again with ramifications for Irish workers – Compaq has 2,200 staff in Dublin, Galway and Belfast.
This is Lucent’s second quarterly loss in succession, after the company was forced to fend off bankruptcy rumors last April.
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At the end of March, the company had 104,000 employees worldwide, and by the end of August this will have been cut to about 87,500. A further 12,000 jobs could go on top of that, according to a company spokesperson.