Seeking Alpha

Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad

21,018 people get ALU articles and Market Currents by email alert.

Get email alerts on ALU »

ALU

Alcatel-Lucent

5/22/2013, 1:58 PM ET

Quote & Headlines Market Currents StockTalk

All
| Earnings
| Dividends
| M&A
| On the move

Wednesday, May 15, 1:23 AM IDC cuts its 2013 IT spending growth forecast to 4.9% from 5.5%, citing macro issues and weak PC demand; 2012 growth was 5.6%. Gartner, which includes a bigger array of products/services in its numbers, forecast 4.1% growth last month. IDC now sees U.S. software spending (MSFT, ORCL) growing 6%, down from a prior 7%. Storage hardware revenue (EMC, NTAP) is only expected to grow 2.4%, down from 2012's 6.1%, and carrier spending on networking gear (CSCO, JNPR, ALU, CIEN) is expected to grow just 1.1% vs. 5.8% in 2012. Recent earnings reports and warnings (I, II, III, IV) help explain the subdued outlook. 2 Comments [Tech]
Tuesday, May 7, 9:52 AM Alcatel-Lucent (ALU +8.4%) surges following the conclusion of its shareholder meeting. Shareholders approved all ballot measures, including the appointment of Michel Combes as CEO and the addition of American Express exec Kim Crawford Goodman to the board. A rally in European equities could also be giving ALU a lift. (PR) 4 Comments [Tech, On the Move]
Tuesday, May 7, 9:13 AM Premarket gainers: SNTS +11%. ALU +11%. CVLT +8%. HIMX +7%. NSM +7%. FOSL +6%. DTV +6%.
Losers: RKUS -24%. ARUN -17%. AKRX -7%. PAL -6%. 1 Comment [On the Move]
Friday, May 3, 11:42 AM Ericsson (ERIC +1.1%) has sold its power cable unit, which had 2012 sales of SEK1.5B ($231M), to Demark's NKT Cables for SEK250M ($38.5M). Also, the mobile infrastructure giant says it expects tough price competition in China as 4G buildouts get underway. China's 3 carriers plan to spend $56B this year on capex, and China Mobile (CHL - the world's biggest carrier) plans to increase capex by 49% to ~$31B. $6.75B of that will be used to set up 200K base stations for CHL's nascent 4G TD-LTE network - Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) should get a portion of it. Comment! [Tech, M&A]
Wednesday, May 1, 2:04 PM Leveraging a €2B credit facility that came with its January debt refinancing deal, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU -1.5%) has made a tender offer for €750M in debt. Alcatel had €6.7B ($8.8B) in debt at the end of Q1, and a net debt position of €358M. Separately, a consortium of Asian carriers has enlisted Alcatel to provide submarine 100G optical transmission systems for a network connecting India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. 2 Comments [Tech]
Monday, April 29, 4:52 PM Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) lowered headcount by 5.4K in Q1, in large part thanks to contract cancellations related company's review of managed services deals (first announced in July). ALU's Managed Services sales fell 4% Y/Y in Q1, whereas its Networks & Platforms services sales rose 33% to €293M. The struggling telecom equipment vendor has been looking to cut jobs, but the French government hasn't been pleased. 6 Comments [Tech]
Friday, April 26, 10:19 AM Alcatel-Lucent (ALU -1.8%) slides as a Q1 EPS miss (-$0.20 vs. consensus of -$0.11) and cash burn overshadow a revenue beat. An 80 bps Y/Y drop in gross margin to 29.4% hurt EPS, and the company's net cash position fell by €505M Q/Q to -€147M thanks in part to free cash flow of -€261M (Alcatel blames contract timings) and interest payments of -€101M. Within Networks & Platforms, the IP division (switches/routers) grew 6% Y/Y (down from Q4's 26%); optics -16% (-22% in Q4), wireless +5% (driven by LTE buildouts, +2% in Q4), broadband gear +9% (up from Q4's -7%), services (previous) a strong +33%. (PR - .pdf) Comment! [Tech, Earnings, On the Move]
Friday, April 26, 3:19 AM Alcatel-Lucent (ALU): Q1 net loss €353M vs profit of €259M a year earlier, with the company suffering its fourth quarterly loss in a row. Sales +0.6% to €3.23B, beating consensus of €3.18B. Plans to unveil details of strategic review by early summer. Revenue breakdown: Networks & Platforms +4.2% to €2.71B, Focused Businesses -22% to €244M, Managed Services -4.2% to €204M. North American growth strong, Japan shows good traction and China stabilizes but Europe -10%. (PR) 1 Comment [Earnings, Tech]
Wednesday, April 24, 1:54 PM Alcatel-Lucent (ALU +3.8%) has sold its ProgrammableWeb unit, originally acquired in 2010, to startup MuleSoft for an undisclosed sum. Alcatel bought ProgrammableWeb, owner of a giant repository of Web software/service APIs and a related community, with the goal of forming stronger ties with Web developers, and thereby creating a bigger ecosystem for its enterprise hardware/software. But the business largely proved a sideshow for the company, which has been hungry to cut costs. Alcatel's Q1 report is due Friday morning. 3 Comments [Tech, M&A]
Wednesday, April 24, 11:59 AM Even as many telecom equipment makers slump due to AT&T's capex cuts, Ericsson (ERIC +4.1%) is up after beating Q1 EPS estimates and providing upbeat commentary. Sales only rose 2% Y/Y - hardware +3%, global services +4%, support solutions (a relatively small business) -19% - and gross margin fell 130 bps Y/Y to 32%, something Ericsson attributes to projects that are initially low-margin. But in remarks that have to please those who see Ericsson as a mobile data traffic play, the company says it will see a higher mix of "capacity projects" in 2H. Rivals Alcatel-Lucent (ALU +2.3%) and Nokia (NOK +1.4%) are also higher, though a rally in European equities could be playing a role. (PR/slides) Comment! [Tech, Earnings, On the Move]
Wednesday, April 10, 11:04 AM Adtran's (ADTN +13%) Q1 beat is contributing to strong gains in telecom equipment, chip, and component stocks, as investors take it as another sign of improving telecom capex going into earnings season. Adtran's remarks about strong demand from both U..S. and international carriers can't be hurting. CSCO +2.5%. CIEN +6.4%. JDSU +4.6%. ALU +4.6%. FN +4.8%. FNSR +6%. PKT +4.2%. RKUS +4.2%. JNPR +3.9%. CAVM +3%. INFN +2.9%. OCLR +4%. SONS +2.5%. 2013 has seen a string of rallies (I, II, III) tied to capex hopes. Comment! [Tech, On the Move]
Thursday, April 4, 9:10 AM Premarket gainers: CBMX +20%. PSDV +13%. NAVB +10%. ALU +9%. ARIA +6%.
Comment! [On the Move]
Thursday, April 4, 8:14 AM Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) gets a welcome upgrade from Deutsche Bank to Buy from Hold. DB says cost cuts, corporate changes, and "positive revenue and margin inflection" make for a compelling turnaround story. The bank also says capex growth in the U.S. and China should mean improvement in the networks revenue environment. Shares +11% premarket. 2 Comments [Tech, On the Move]
Wednesday, April 3, 9:59 AM Though Cisco (CSCO) insists it has no intention of entering the traditional base station market (citing commoditization), its acquisition of small cell base station vendor Ubiquisys makes it more of a mobile infrastructure rival to Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and Ericsson (ERIC) than ever. The combination of Ubiquisys' 3G/4G small cell solutions and Cisco's Wi-Fi hardware should eventually give it an end-to-end offering to take on market leader ALU's lightRadio line. Cisco is also pushing its new Quantum software suite (the result of the BroadHop/Cariden/Intucell deals) to mobile carriers. 2 Comments [Tech, M&A]
Tuesday, April 2, 12:54 PM Nuage Networks, Alcatel-Lucent's (ALU +0.8%) software-defined networking (SDN) unit, has launched its Virtualized Service Platform (VSP), an SDN solution that will be commercially available in mid-2013. As previously suggested, Nuage is trying to stand out relative to early data center SDN leaders such as Nicira (VMware) and Big Switch by trumpeting its ability to manage multiple data centers and automatically integrate with carrier virtual networks. French carrier SFR is among the trial users. (PR) Comment! [Tech]
Wednesday, March 27, 10:29 AM European tech and telecom stocks are underperforming as continental equities sell off on Italian concerns. STM -3.9%. ALU -2.3%. NXPI -1.4%. FTE -4.3%. TEF -2.1%. TI -4.3%. VOD -1.7%. One exception is Nokia (NOK +0.3%), which is benefiting from an upgrade to Buy from Swedbank. 6 Comments [Tech, On the Move]

1
2
3
4
5
6
...
27
Next Page