Alcatel Lucent axes 5,000 staff, takes right shoeing from rivals

Troubled Alcatel Lucent will axe 5,000 jobs after bleeding €254m (£199m) in its latest quarter.

The telecoms kit maker said it will save €750m (£587m) in overheads by shaving more than six per cent off the 78,000 strong global workforce.

Sales for Q2 2012, ended 30 June, fell 7.1 per cent year-on-year to €3.54bn (£2.77bn). The company made a loss of €254m against a profit of €43m (£33.6m) in the same period in 2011.

Alcatel Lucent is feeling the squeeze from rivals including Huawei, whose profits fell 25 per cent to £886m in its latest quarter.

As well as the job cuts, Alcatel Lucent has other cost-cutting masterstrokes in the pipeline that could save up to €1.2bn (£939m) in total by the end of 2013. Vewaayen said this was to "keep ahead of market realities".

"These times demand firm action," the former BT boss added.

Alcatel Lucent is not alone in shedding staff: rival Nokia Siemens Networks is getting rid of 17,000 folk or 23 per cent of its workforce. ®