Nortel Networks Corp has revised its April forecast for Q2/2002 sales from "flat" to "flat-to-down 5%" from Q1's USD2.91bn and says that it doesn't expect a long-haul recovery before late 2003 or early 2004, Nortel is therefore cutting another 3,500 jobs from its long-haul business by end-Q3/2002 (at a charge of about USD600m). It is also looking at selling or resizing its optical-components business.
Nortel now expects staffing to bottom at 42,000 rather than April's forecast of 44,000. After cutting about 50,000 jobs since the start of 2001, it employed 47,000 at the end of Q1/2002.
Nortel had revenues of USD17.51bn last year. But, with USD4.8bn of debt, it plans to lower its break-even from USD3.5bn to USD3.2bn in quarterly revenues by Q4/2002.