Telecom briefs

ADC cuts 2,500 more jobs, lowers guidance

ADC yesterday announced it would cut 2,500 employees from its payroll in addition to the 7,000 layoffs announced earlier this year as part of a plan to cut its annual operating expenses by $450 million.

The vendor also said its loss per share for the third quarter will be about 5 cents, at the lower range of its previously stated guidance. In addition, the loss doesn’t include restructuring charges the company will incur this quarter and next quarter.

ADC said it plans to reduce its operating costs by an additional $50 million per quarter, mainly through the additional layoffs. The company also plans to unload unprofitable product lines, reduce spending and retire debt.

Williams exceeds expectations

Williams Communications today reported increased revenues, surges in network voice traffic and a lower-than-expected loss for the second quarter. Further, the company expects to be operational cash-flow positive long before it runs out of money in 2004.

Williams reported a 57% increase in consolidated revenue and 75 percent increase in network revenues over second quarter year 2000. The company also said its long-distance traffic exceeded 2.6 billion minutes for the second quarter--a 272% increase from the same period last year--its customer base grew 73% year-over-year, to 271 customers. The latest of those customers was announced today as Williams revealed SBC Communications has contracted with Williams to carry Cingular Wireless’ long distance traffic throughout SBC’s 13-state local exchange region.

Williams posted an operating cash-flow loss of $20.4 million, better than the company’s previous guidance, and 64% better the $56.3 million loss Williams reported in last year’s second quarter. Williams said it expects total losses for year 2001 to be $1.1 billion, or $2.29 per share, bettering the $2.33 loss projected by analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial.