NORTEL又要裁7000人，我要上山打游击去了！

[terry]

Dow Jones Business News
Nortel Networks Updates 3rd Quarter 2002 Outlook
Tuesday August 27, 7:12 pm ET

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Nortel Networks Corp. lowered its third-quarter revenue from continuing operations guidance and said it will reduce costs further through job cuts.

In a press release Tuesday, Nortel, Brampton, Ontario, blamed further spending reductions by U.S. service providers.

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The company still expects ongoing sequential pro forma bottom line improvement in the third and fourth quarters, as a result of ongoing restructuring activities.

However, due to the additional pressure on spending, the company will take additional actions to lower its quarterly break-even cost structure, which will include job cuts and facilities closures. After the job cuts are complete, which Nortel expects in the fourth quarter, the company will be left with 35,000 employees.

For the third quarter, Nortel expects revenue from continuing operations up to 10% below the second quarter. Previously, the company had expected this figure to be flat with the second quarter.

A Nortel spokeswoman said the company has 42,000 employees before the latest round of job cuts, but declined to provide a break-down by region or position.

Specifically, Nortel is cutting cost to reduce its quarterly break-even cost structure to below $2.6 billion from $3.2 billion. Break-even cost structure excludes acquisition-related costs and special items.

Nortel maintains as its top priority a return to profitability by the end of next June and said the cost cuts are needed to meet this goal.

 

[Kent以东首帅哥]

什么山?

 

[......]

国会山

 

[visitor]

现在游击队比正规军还多，而且满山遍野，到处都是。

 

[蹉跎岁月]

By Reuters
August 27, 2002, 9:30 PM PT

Battered telecommunications equipment giant Nortel Networks said it would cut another 7,000 jobs and lowered its third-quarter revenue forecast on Tuesday, blaming lower spending by U.S. phone companies.
Nortel said it planned to cut its work force to 35,000 people, about 17 percent smaller than the 42,000 work force the company had hoped to have a few months ago. The company had 95,500 employees in December 2000.

"They're losing market share on top of being in a bad market," said Chet White, an analyst with Wells Fargo Securities. "Those combined factors just put them into a difficult position."

The Brampton, Ontario-based company has seen demand plunge for its products that are used in telephone, wireless and Internet networks. Phone carriers suffering from over expansion and crippling debt loads slashed equipment purchases.

Saying its top priority is to return to profitability by the end of June 2003, Nortel said it would cut costs to allow it to break even on less than $2.6 billion in quarterly revenue. The company's previously stated break-even cost structure was $3.2 billion.

It now expects revenue to be about 10 percent lower on weaker-than-expected demand, the company said. It had previously said it expected revenue from operations in the third quarter to be about the same as in the second quarter.

But it said it expects to see improvements in its pro forma bottom line in the third and fourth quarters of this year.

Nortel reported a second-quarter loss before charges of 9 cents per share on sales of $2.77 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected Nortel to post a loss excluding charges of 6 cents per share in the third quarter and a loss before charges of 3 cents per share in the fourth quarter, according to tracking service First Call.

Nortel shares closed on Tuesday at $1.23, down 6 cents, or 4.7 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares, which traded as high as $84.94 in July 2000, have rallied since hitting an all-time low of 76 cents on July 26 after a wireless customer scaled back plans for a network expansion.

 

[chu_nv01]

let see how Capitalism sets down and socialism rises.
Nortel will disappear in the near future.

 

[蹉跎岁月]

I short sold NT yesterday, but I should have done that a lot more.
Anyway, what a nice day today!

 

[Wanchen]

不是前几天一直说不裁了吗？

怎么好好的说着就变卦了，这是第几次了？好像是患了慢性肠炎。

话说回来，自从有了新的CxO,我们就更加明确的Vision，一路Down下去。

列位看官，什么叫Vision?看看LU, JDSU, MONI, NT们的辉煌业绩，就知道其实是人就喜欢说好听的，听好听的。

 

[胡说之]

最初由 chu_nv01 发布
let see how Capitalism sets down and socialism rises.
Nortel will disappear in the near future.

I think Canada is a socialist country...

 

[mike]

请教NT还剩多少人可以裁的，怎么整天裁不完似的。
是不是有这规律：裁一次，股票就升一次？

 

[蹉跎岁月]

裁人是 CEO 们向股东们的交代，表明他们是负责任的， 是有 Vision 的。
如果不能裁人或者没人裁了，那就是破产的时候到了。

 

[former-ABC]

[message posted in light reading] ...

1.

In an e mail sent to the troops about the pending layoffs, fearless leader, Frank Dunn, told them not to take them PERSONALLY.
What a morale booster, what a leader. He reminds me of the French generals during WW I sending their troops to certain death in the trenches, while they sat in their HQs blaming their defeats on the lack of effort from the soldiers.

I never heard him blame the employees, far from it. Personally, I like how he brings up some positive news whenever he can, and at least he sounds sincere.

I wondered what I would tell my employees if I was the CEO. "Sorry, we have to fire 7000 of you"? Nah, it's better to say "don't take it personally" and to say that management will be affected and that the structure will end up more flat (i.e. managers and VPs will get fired).

In the end, I just hope I'm part of the last few left.

2.

Personally, I like how he brings up some positive news whenever he can, and at least he sounds sincere.

"Positive news"??? Are you kidding me?! Theres so much fluff in FD's message that I nearly barfed the first time I read it.

You could Search & Replace "Nortel" with a hundred other companies today and it'd still apply!
Symptomatic of the fundamental problem at Nortel, even at the top they don't want to address the real issues.

And how can anyone not take it personally? Are people getting laid-off at random? No!

"Sorry, you've been identified as bottom 15%. You're crap, but don't take it personally. Sayonara".

3.

"Positive news"??? Are you kidding me?! Theres so much fluff in FD's message that I nearly barfed the first time I read it.

When you were sick and your parents told you "there there, it'll be allright", did you lash out at them for giving you fluff? Seriously, what else do you want them to say? People lash out at Dunn for blaming the employees, and at the same time they lash out at encouraging the employees.

You could Search & Replace "Nortel" with a hundred other companies today and it'd still apply!
Symptomatic of the fundamental problem at Nortel, even at the top they don't want to address the real issues.

Real issues like hard-workers not getting laid off and useless lazy-asses staying because they know people?


And how can anyone not take it personally? Are people getting laid-off at random? No!

"Sorry, you've been identified as bottom 15%. You're crap, but don't take it personally. Sayonara".

At this point, few people get laid off because of poor performance. The people who should be afraid are those whose divisions aren't making money, everyone knows this.

As for laying off the useless guys who just know people, how the hell do you expect one guy to just say "ok, fire all those guys who are your best friends but who don't do any work". Do you expect anyone to listen? I don't know if such a goal is achievable in a large company like Nortel. We've had people from Cisco saying exactly the same thing about the layoffs there!

4.

Is this the real Frank Dunn writing here?
Man, I'm impressed!

I work in high-tech and quit few jobs over the last 2 years. I never blamed the CEO or the company. I can understand how bad the economy is for telcos.

What is also true is only those investing R&D money for the future will survive. I believe Nortel is cutting so much in R&D it won't be able to come back stronger and win over the competition.

Too many good people left the company (or got laid-off). Nortel doesn’t have the money (or stock valuation) to buy competitive start-ups. What incentives could Nortel find to attract top talent in the future?

Slow death?