Compaq, Lucent and Xerox report results

Compaq reported a Q3 loss of $120m, or 7 cents a share on an operating basis, which was in line with Wall Street expectations.

This compares to operating earnings of $532m, or 32 cents a share in Q3, 2000.

The company has suffered from a price war in the area of PC manufacturing, decreasing levels of spending on technology, and problems relating to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Compaq has suffered a loss of market share due mainly to aggressive pricing by Dell. It expects the fourth quarter to be weak, but a slight improvement on Q3, with an anticipated loss of 3 cents a share and revenue of around $7.6bn.

In September, Compaq announced to was to merge with Hewlett Packard.

Lucent reported results for Q4. Its revenues for the quarter were $5.2bn, compared with $5.9bn in revenues achieved in Q3.

Compared with Q4, 2000, revenues declined 28% and the loss from continuing operations was $909m, or a loss of 27 per share. For the fiscal year 2001, revenues declined 26%.

The company is working to return to profitability and has since the end of the first quarter reduced its workforce by 29,000 to 77,000. It has been cutting costs across the board and has reduced its run rate by $2.4bn over the year.

In 2002, the company expected the market to continue to decline and it thinks that in Q1 2002 it will be down by at least 10%. However, it is hopeful that revenues will improve in Q2.

Xerox reported its fifth straight quarterly loss, which it said was due to a fall in sales of its copiers and printers following the attacks of September 11.

Xerox said that its third quarter net loss was $211m, or about 29 cents a share, compared with a loss of $191m, or 30 cents a share, a year ago. Revenues fell 13% to $3.9bn

Analysts said that the results were in line with recently reduced expectations.

During the year the company has been restructuring, and in June, it announced that it was closing its inkjet manufacturing facility in Dundalk.

However, it said that it hoped to re-deploy these staff in other parts of its Dundalk operations. It presently employs around 2,500 people in Ireland and there have been no major jobs losses here, though globally, the company has shed about 11,000 jobs in the last year.