Lucent posts more woe

NEWS Lucent's run of bad luck is set to continue tomorrow as it is expected to post another quarter of losses. The troubled telecoms equipment vendor predicted third quarter losses of between nine and 32 cent loss per share. News last week, that its primary rival Nortel Networks lost $19.4bn in the last quarter, has done little to rally analyst expectations. It has a veritable raft of problems to solve including debt reduction, job cutting, phasing out old and unprofitable technology as well as selling off non-core assets. The company started the month well announcing it had managed to claw back $519m to counter its mounting debts by issuing more Agere shares. However, it was then plunged further into the red two weeks later when it was hit by a $10bn lawsuit from US broadband wireless start-up, Winstar. The young company claimed it was forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to a credit agreement, the company is also obligated to raise $2bn in non-operating cash by the end of its fiscal year in September, if it is to complete the spin-off of Agere Systems - its optical component arm. Optimistically Analysts believe the company could show promise in the wireless and optical business. A recent $1bn contract win with Sprint to help build its 3G network provided a much needed revenue boost in a period of slowing sales. Lucent is expected to axe up to 10,000 staff when it announces its results late tomorrow. This comes on top of the 10,000 job losses last month and the planned early retirement scheme for 13,000 employees.