Lucent Technologies yesterday reported that its net income excluding one-time events rose 26 per cent to $US1.414 billion or $1.05 a share for its fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 1998.
Lucent's earnings per share came in at the high end of estimates made by brokers polled by First Call, whose mean estimate was $1.01 per share.
Revenues increased 6 per cent to $9.204 billion, company officials said yesterday. Business outside the US was strong: revenue overseas grew 49 per cent overall, and increased 67 per cent in systems for network operators.
Including a one-time gain of $1.308 billion due to a change in Lucent's pension and post-retirement benefits accounting, and a one-time after-tax charge of $14 million related to its acquisition of Quadritek, the company's first quarter income was $2.708 billion or $2.00 per shareDuring the year-ago quarter, Lucent's net income was $1.124 billion, excluding an after-tax charge of $427 million related to its acquisition of Livingston Enterprises, and a gain of $95 million on the sale of its Advanced Technology Systems Business. Including those one-time events in the year ago quarter, its income was $792 million or 61 cents a share. Its first-quarter revenues last year were $8.724 billion.
Systems for network operators contributed $6.115 billion in revenues, while business communications systems contributed $1.975 billion and microelectronics products brought in $821 million.
The company is already on track for a strong second quarter, said Richard McGinn, chairman and chief executive officer. It expects revenues to grow 30 per cent over the same quarter last year, and earnings per share to double from the 14 cents reported a year ago, he said.