By end-2002 Lucent Technologies will cut its workforce by 15% from 53,000 - 7,000 plus 1,000 through attrition, outsourcing and sales of businesses. This news came after Lucent reported its ninth consecutive quarterly net loss in fiscal Q3/2002 of USD7.91bn (up from USD3.24bn a year ago). Sales were USD2.95bn (down 16% on Q2 and 45% on a year ago).
Corning is cutting a further 4,400 jobs this year as it aims to hit its profitability target in 2003. This follows a loss of USD370m on sales of USD896m in Q2/2002 (up from USD90m on sales of USD898m in Q1). Telecoms segment sales were USD437m (down 6%), including fibre and cable USD212m (down 17%) due to low demand from incumbent carriers and cable TV operators in North America and the 10-15% drop in global fibre pricing. Most job cuts will be in the telecom business. Corning laid off nearly 12,000 staff in 2001.
Meanwhile, Ciena has combined four product development organisations (Core Transport, Core Switching, Metro Transport and Metro Switching) into two teams - Core Networking and Metro Networking - to combine the various network elements.
Ciena has also created the Light-Works Solutions development team to focus on features spanning both metro and core networks, combining Network Management, Network Design & Tools, Systems Engineering and the Solutions Lab.