Alcatel-Lucent has posted a small quarterly profit, but has widened the margin for its guidance.
The French-US infrastructure vendor posted a €46 million ($63m) Q4 profit, up from a net loss of €3.8 billion in Q408.
But it was revising its margin guidance because of “what remains a highly competitive environment”.
The company expects the equipment market to recover in 2010, but it was too early “to have a firm view”.
“The company is therefore widening the targeted range for its adjusted operating margin in 2010, while remaining committed to the 2011 goals of its three-year transformation plan,” it said.
It expects growth of up to 5% in the market and an operating margin of between 1%-5%.
For the full year Alcatel-Lucent reported sales down 10.8% to €15.157 billion and a net loss of €524 million, down from €5.2 billion in 2008.
CEO Ben Verwaayen said the full year figures were hit by a poor Q4, when revenues fell 19.9% year-on-year to €3.96 billion.
He said the prospects for 2010 were better, on the back of being contracted by AT&T to supply LTE equipment alongside Ericsson.
The deal, announced Wednesday, will see the trio complete trials later this year and launch commercial services in 2011