When your best just isn’t good enough: Lucent’s struggle continues

Hot on the heels of being awarded a USD1 billion contract from Sprint PCS [NYSE: PCS] on 22 July, Lucent Technologies [NYSE: LU] yesterday posted its 13th straight quarterly loss. Decreased spending in the market has continued to hurt the telecom equipment maker, and its announcement caused a further 7% drop in share value. After suffering a USD12 billion loss for the 2002 fiscal year, Lucent has continued to epitomize the struggling industry. The details of the Sprint contract neglected to reveal the length of the deal, which makes assessing its impact difficult. However, Lucent is still postponing its goal of returning to the black until next year. Forecasts have shown to be a futile task with the current level of market uncertainty.