(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Lucent Technologies reported that profit declined in the third quarter due to weakness in its North American operations.
Net income for the quarter ended June 30 fell to $79 million from $372 million, a year ago. The year-ago period benefited from a gain of $127 million resulting from favorable tax items and recoveries of bad debt.
Revenue fell to $2.05 billion from $2.34 billion. The decline reflects weakness in the US market, where revenue declined 15 % to $1.27 billion from $1.5 billion in the second quarter.
The results were in line with the reduced forecast the company provided earlier this month.
'Our results this quarter reflect an impending shift in spending as some of our North American customers begin to move from current-generation to next-generation mobile high-speed data solutions,' said Lucent chairman and CEO Patricia Russo.
Russo said Lucent and French telecom company Alcatel 'continue to make excellent progress in integration planning for our pending merger transaction.' The companies have said the deal would give them the size to counter increased purchasing power among customers following a wave of mergers by telecom network operators. European regulators cleared the proposed transaction earlier this week.
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