Lucent Technologies, the world's largest maker of telecommunications equipment, warned today that third-quarter revenues will decline as telephone carriers continue to keep a tight grip on their purse strings.
Lucent said it expects revenues from ongoing operations for its fiscal third quarter ending June 30th to decline on a sequential basis by about 10 per cent to 15 per cent from its second-quarter revenues of $3.52 billion.
When Lucent reported its second-quarter results in April, it did not provide a revenue forecast due to the market uncertainty. It said at the time that it expected sequential improvement in earnings before charges, assuming no significant change in revenue levels.
"Service providers continue to constrain their capital spending to conserve cash, which is clearly affecting our top line," Lucent's chief executive Ms Patricia Russo said in a statement.
She said Lucent is seeing declines mostly in wireline systems in North America.
Lucent said it continues to target a return to profits and positive cash flow during fiscal 2003.
The company said it continues to have sufficient liquidity to fund its operations and has no outstanding balance on its credit facility. It added that some financial covenants of the facility have been amended to provide additional flexibility in the uncertain market.