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Today's report from Web Editor
Susan Rush
• Lucent Boots McGinn
• Corning Profits Soar Amidst Strong Sales
• AT&T: And Four Stand Alone
• The Ins And Outs Of 3G
• Broadband Briefs
Lucent Boots McGinn A
few weeks ago, Lucent Technologies CEO
Richard McGinn said the company's financial problems were
"fixable." Turns out, the fix involved giving him his walking
papers. The Lucent board is letting McGinn go after deciding, "an
immediate change in leadership was necessary" to right the company's
flagging earnings and cratered stock prices.
Former Lucent head Henry Schacht will reprise his role at the
company -- he was Lucent's first CEO after its 1996 spin-off from AT&T
-- replacing McGinn as chairman and CEO.
For the fourth time this year, Lucent trims back its
performance outlook. The telecommunications equipment maker expects pro
forma revenue from continuing operations for the current quarter to drop
about 7 percent, with pro forma earnings to break even. The quarter earnings
announcement will be released after the market closes today.
Shares rose 5.25 percent to $23.81 this morning, but remained
well below the company's 52-week high of $84.18.
Related Stories:
Lucent
Falls Below Expectations, BroadbandWeek Direct, 10/11/00
Lucent
Exceeds Expectations, But Growth Stunted, Wireless Week, 7/20/00
Corning Profits Soar Amidst Strong Sales
Optical fiber, cable and amplifier sales lead the way to
profits for Corning Inc. during the
third quarter. The fiber optic manufacturer sported $317 million in pro
forma net income for the quarter, up from $148 million during Q3 1999. Pro
forma earnings rose to 35 cents a share, compared to 19 cents a share during
the same period a year ago.
Quarter sales were reported at $1.9 billion, a 54
percent increase over the $1.25 billion in Q3 1999. The company does not
expect the profits to fall off any time soon. "Consistent with our
long-term growth objectives, we expect earnings to grow next year at a rate
of about 25 percent," explains Roger Ackerman, chairman and CEO.
In other Corning news, the company signed a four-year deal to
jointly develop and deploy optical fiber with Level
3 Communications. Corning will act as the worldwide supplier of at least
10 million kilometers of optical fiber and cable for Level 3's inter-city
and metropolitan networks.
Related Story:
Corning
Forks Over $3.6B For Rival Pirelli, BroadbandWeek Direct, 9/27/00
Corning
Buffs Up Fiber, BroadbandWeek Direct, 8/24/00
AT&T: And Four Stand Alone
With the World Series heating up in New York City, now may be
the perfect time for AT&T Corp. to let
its "Project Grand Slam" out of the bullpen. The
telecommunications giant is reportedly considering a plan to break itself up
into four separate entities. AT&T did not return calls seeking comment.
The plan calls for the creation of four separate units:
consumer, business, wireless and broadband. Board members are discussing the
proposal today, according to the Wall Street Journal. It is unclear
whether board members will go for a four-way split, but it is clear that the
company must make a move to recover some of its losses this year. Stock woes
have plagued the company -- its stock is down more than 50 percent from its
52-week high of $61 -- and the board is searching for that perfect idea that
will hit a home run for the company. AT&T considering several options at
the moment, including some sort of union with British
Telecommunications and spinning off its consumer long-distance unit.
If the board does approve "Project Grand Slam"
today, an official announcement about the breakup could come as early as
Wednesday, when the company releases its third quarter financials.
Related Stories:
TW
Responds To AT&T, BroadbandWeek Direct, 10/19/00
The
Talks: AT&T And BT, BroadbandWeek Direct, 9/18/00
Image is
Everything, BroadbandWeek Direct, 9/15/00
The Ins And Outs Of 3G
3G licenses: Germany scored huge, $46 billion; Britain scored
big, $34 billion; and the President of the United States of America made his
call to allocate spectrum for high-speed third-generation wireless
technology licenses last week. The Czech Republic is gearing up for its own
3G license auction early next year, with the finance ministry hoping to
bring in at least $485 million in license revenues. Italy is also jumping
into the fray. Needless to say, the next generation of wireless is big
bucks, but the technology is complex and standards rich. MRG
Inc. and Fuji-Keizai USA have
teamed to try and make sense of it all it a new report, "Third
Generation Mobile Networks."
The report emphasizes how networking standards will alter the
communications market, and breaks down 3G standards and spectrum allocation.
Other areas explored by the report include 2G and 3G definitions, 3G
deployment scenarios, and a look at future technologies, including 4G.
Related Stories:
President
Calls For 3G, BroadbandWeek Direct, 10/3/00
3G
Wins Big In Germany, BroadbandWeek Direct, 8/18/00
Broadband Briefs:
- Keen Personal Media
will integrate mbTV's technology into its
TV4me products, enabling plug-and-play advanced personal video recorder
options in existing digital set-top boxes.
- SBC Communications
reported third quarter revenues of $13.5 billion. By the end of the quarter,
SBC had 516,000 DSL customers, with a current run rate of more than 4,000 net
adds a day.
- STM Wireless Inc.
wins approval for its Cyclic Code Phase Multiple Access patent. The technology
is designed to reduce the cost of broadband VSAT and associated hub equipment,
according to the company.
- ArticuLearn
Inc. teams with Akamai Technologies to
deliver streaming media options to online course programs.
- Telegen Corp. acquires
a majority interest in Telisar Corp. to expand development of broadband
wireless datacasting solutions.
- The government in the United Kingdom will make two
additional radio frequencies available next year for high-speed fixed wireless
Internet access.
- RealNetworks
teams with Sony Corp. to deliver a new
version of RealAudio technology for the 'Net. The venture with Sony enables
RealNetworks to break into the digital audio market.
- Billing software solutions provider TeleKnowledge
secures $35 million in private funding, with 3i as the lead investor.
TeleKnowledge software is geared toward providers delivering applications,
content and services to customers over broadband networks.
- Kyocera
Wireless Corp. and Lucent Technologies form an alliance to focus on the
development of third-generation Code Division Multiple Access services.
- Bel Fuse Inc.
expands its product offering to include the Bel S560-6600-A6 magnetic module.
The component is designed to aid Alcatel's and AMD's chipsets reach full rate
ADSL downstream speeds of up to 8 Mbps.
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