"Alcatel-Lucent" cuts 1.000 manager jobs

"Alcatel-Lucent" SA, the world"s largest supplier of fixed telephony equipment, will cut 1.000 manager positions and will trim the company"s costs by 1 billion euros (1,3 billion dollars) a year, starting in 2009. CEO Ben Verwaayen, is trying to end the string of seven consecutive losing quarters.

The company will also cut 5000 contractors.

On September 2nd, Alcatel-Lucent"s board appointed Verwaayen, former CEO of BT Group Plc, as CEO, and Philippe Camus, formerly of Lagardere SCA, as chairman. They replaced Patricia Russo, and Serge Tchuruk, respectively, who orchestrated the merger between "Alcatel" and "Lucent".

The company lost 4,84 billion Euros (6,38 billion dollars) after "Alcatel" SA acquired US based "Lucent Technologies" Inc. in November 2006. The losses were caused by the restructuring costs, the asset depreciation in the wireless telephony equipment segment and the slashing of expenditure by US customers, such as "Sprint Nextel" Corp. However, Verwaayen clarified that "Alcatel-Lucent" does not intend to give up making wireless telephony equipment.

The company"s board, announced last week it would have operating profit next year, but sees telecom equipment market down 8% to 12% in 2009.

In Q3 2008, Alcatel"s net losses narrowed to 40 million Euros, from the 345 million during 2007"s first three quarters. Sales dropped 6,6%, to 4,07 billion Euros.

In February, "Alcatel-Lucent" announced that it would spend 1,3 billion euros in 2008-2009 for reorganization, and two thirds of this amount are allocated for the current year. In October 2007, the company"s management announced 16500 jobs would be cut, meaning 20% of the total workforce. The 1.000 layoffs announced at the end of last week put the number of cut jobs to 17.500.