Lucent Reports Higher Profits, Sales

Lucent Technologies today reported strong gains in fourth-quarter profits and sales, beating Wall Street expectations.

The networking vendor recorded a 23% increase in revenue to $10.6 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with last year's fourth-quarter revenue of $8.6 billion. Net income rose to $948 million, or 30 cents per share, vs. $220 million, or 7 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Lucent says its fourth-quarter growth reflects the company's focus on professional services and optical, wire, and data networking systems. Networking systems revenue increased 32% to $6.9 billion, and microelectronics products rose 22% to $991 million, while business communication systems changed little from the previous year at $2.5 billion.

For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, revenue increased 20% to $38.3 billion, vs. revenue of $31.8 billion in fiscal 1998. Net income rose to $4.8 billion or $1.52 per share for the fiscal year, compared with net income of $2.6 billion or 86 cents per share for fiscal 1998.

Lucent also announced today the formation of four core businesses that will operate under one brand with the support of Bell Labs technology. The businesses, Service Provider Networks, Enterprise Networks, NetCare Professional Services, and Microelectronics and Communications Technologies, are designed to address specific markets and will help Lucent to capitalize on opportunities in the communications networking space.