Lucent Posts First Quarterly Profit Since 2000

While the company's losses have been shrinking in recent quarters, analysts did not expect a profit for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 or the next one.

The Murray Hill-based company on Wednesday reported net income of $99 million, or 2 cents per share. The 30 analysts surveyed by First Call expected a per-share loss of 4 cents per share, but none of them expected a profit.

A year ago, Lucent reported a net loss of $2.8 billion, or 84 cents per share.

The company has shrunk its losses by becoming a smaller operation. Through layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, the company has slashed operating expenses to $524 million for the quarter, down 79 percent from $2.5 billion a year earlier.

Revenue for the most recent quarter was just more than $2 billion, down 11 percent from the $2.3 billion it brought in during the year-ago period.

Lucent CEO Patricia Russo said the company's restructuring into a smaller firm is essentially complete. She also said that the quarterly profit is not an indication that the company will be able to be profitable every quarter. "In the current challenging marketing environment, it's likely we will still have some ups and downs on the way to sustained profitability," she said.

For the fiscal year, which also ended Sept. 30, Lucent lost $770 million, or 29 cents per share, down from a loss of $11.8 billion, or $3.49 per share, last year.

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