Alcatel-Lucent may cut up to 20,000 jobs

Mumbai: Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent may cut more than 20 per cent of its workforce world-wide, according to a web report published by the weekly L'Expansion.

Citing industry sources, the report said this could mean 15,000 to 20,000 jobs of which 1,500 to 2,000 would be in France.

The weekly quoted union sources as saying that part of the job cuts would be through early retirement.

Alcatel-Lucent had planned to cut 10 per cent of its workforce as part of the merge. The two companies began combined operations from December 1 making it the world's second-largest supplier of telecom network and mobile equipment after Cisco Systems Inc.

The company said last month it expected unadjusted fourth-quarter revenues of about 3.87 billion euros ($5 billion) and fourth-quarter operating income of about 120 million euros. The merger, meanwhile, had added an asset impairment charge of around 800 million euros for the fourth quarter, the company said.

The company said its planned cost savings of at least 600 million euros for 2007 up 200 million euros from initially planned. Alcatel did not make any comments on the report.

On January 23, Alcatel-Lucent lost over a tenth of its market value after it warned of lower sales and profit due to post-merger uncertainty. Results for 2006 are due at the week-end.

Meanwhile, a coalition of French labour unions has planned a meeting on February 16 to decide on an action plan against any possible lay-offs at Alcatel-Lucent, reports said.