With disappointing sales of mobile infrastructure responsible for Alcatel-Lucent’s weak first quarter performance (confirmed after a warning at the end of April), it seems that the integration of the two companies is taking longer than the business plan predicted.
With 1Q revenues of €3.88 billion ($5.23 billion), down nearly 13% from the €4.43 billion ($6 billion) the vendor would have reported as a unified company a year earlier, there was little to cheer, and the analysts themselves gave the company a hard enough time.
Especially as they said that Ericsson, in particular, has been picking up share at the expense of the Franco-American giant
There may be better news on the second quarter results, however, with the company predicting a rise of 10%. But overall annual revenues are still predicted to be down around $1.3 billion lower than the markets expected.
Patricia Russo, CEO, said, “Based on the strong order flow we are seeing across all businesses, we anticipate solid sequential growth as the year progresses, with our second quarter 2007 revenue expected to grow approximately 10% from the first quarter 2007 at a constant Euro/USD exchange rate. Looking forward to the full year 2007, we expect revenues to increase on a percentage basis at the carrier market growth rate of mid single digits at a constant Euro/USD exchange rate. “
Before that, though, the company is facing the embarrassing loss of a computer disk containing personal information, (including the name, address, Social Security number, date of birth and salary data) of Alcatel-Lucent U.S.- paid employees who worked for Lucent and their dependents, and Lucent retirees and their dependents.
There was no information regarding customers or their accounts, and the disk did not contain credit card numbers, bank account numbers or password information, the company said.
It appears that the disk was either lost or stolen between April 5 and May 3.