More job cuts at Lucent?

After cutting its workforce from nearly 160,000 in June 2000 to near 45,000, Lucent Technologies may be on the verge of making more significant cuts. Lucent recently cut around 100 workers in association with its shutdown of the LambdaRouter, but this coming cut may be a very significant one, according to industry sources (see our online story, Lucent brings end to LambdaRouter, Aug 16, 2002).

In Lucent’s earnings announcement on July 23, the company said it is actively developing plans to further reduce EPS breakeven revenue to below $3.5 billion during fiscal 2003, and that could involve further actions and an additional restructuring charge, according to a Lucent spokeswoman. That will likely be recorded in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2002.

“We also said at the time that we expect our headcount to get to 45,000 by the end of the calendar year,” the spokeswoman said. “As you would expect, we are continually monitoring the market and sizing Lucent appropriately. We are taking a balanced approach in our planning to ensure that we have the work force and product portfolio that will enable us to best meet our customers’ needs.”

Please stay tuned for further developments with this story.