MURRAY HILL, N.J. – Struggling telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc., which recently terminated merger talks with France's Alcatel, said on Tuesday it expects its third-quarter sales to be modestly higher than its second-quarter results despite market weakness.
Lucent also said it remained confident in its ongoing restructuring plan and has accelerated its cost-cutting efforts. It did not elaborate.
``We remain confident in our restructuring plan. Our job now is to build on the progress we have made and pick up the pace,'' said Chairman Henry Schacht.
Lucent and Alcatel last week abandoned merger talks due to disagreements over the structure of a combined company's board and management control, sources familiar with the situation said.
Now Lucent must press on with its restructuring efforts. Analysts have said Lucent must pare its debt, sell non-core businesses such as its fiber-optic unit, and cut as many as 20,000 jobs. Under the terms of a recent credit pact, Lucent must raise $2.5 billion in cash from non-operating sources by Sept. 30.
Lucent said it expects third-quarter sales to show ``modest sequential growth'' over sales of $5.915 billion in the second quarter. In the third quarter, meanwhile, it expects to improve over the loss of 37 cents per share in the second quarter, it said.
Wall Street analysts expect Lucent to post a loss of 21 cents a share in the third quarter, according to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.
Lucent and other communications equipment makers have been hurt by the weakness in the economy and a slowdown in spending by telephone and Internet service customers.
``There is no question that the market is soft,'' Schacht said. Lucent posted $4.7 billion in losses during the first half of its fiscal year.
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