Alcatel-Lucent's Q1 results hurt by slow telecom service provider sales
Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) is feeling the sting of slow service provider sales in both North America and Europe with major declines particularly in both its optics and wireline units.
In Q1 2012, the France-based global telecommunications vendor reported that revenue was down 12.3 percent year-over-year and decreased 22.7 percent sequentially to 4.24 million, down from $4.83 billion in Q1 2011.
The vendor reported a net profit of $526 million, up from a $13.2 million net loss in the same period a year ago. Alcatel-Lucent benefited though from its $871 million sale of its conferencing center business Genesys to Permira last October. It also reported an operating loss of $292 million after reporting an operating profit of $5.3 million in the year-ago quarter.
"We had a slow start in a volatile environment because of lower product volumes and mix," CEO Ben Verwaayen said on the company's earnings conference call, according to a Reuters report. "The European debt crisis is all around us and that has an impact. It's a serious issue to factor in and a good reason to be cautious."