Alcatel-Lucent to cut 5,000 jobs globally
26 Jul 2012
French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent announced today that it intended to cut 5,000 jobs globally as part of a plan to cut costs by 1.25 billion euros (1.51 billion dollars) by the end of 2013.
The company made the announcement as it released its second-quarter results, which showed net losses of 254 million euros.
Turnover was down 7.1 per cent year-on-year to 3.5 billion euros, while adjusted operating income dropped from 87 million euros a year ago to a loss of 31 million euros.
Alcatel chief executive Ben Verwaayen said these times demanded firm actions, including ''shrinking our employee base and exiting certain non-profitable contracts.''
Verwaayen has been trying to cut costs at Alcatel for years in a bid to better compete against China's Huawei Technologies and Sweden's Ericsson.
In 2011, the company which employs 78,000 people globally reported a profit for the first time in six years.