Motorola, Lucent Bounce Back

Motorola and Lucent Technologies, veteran wireless technology companies that had been staggering, this week reported signs that they have recovered.

Lucent Technologies, which provides infrastructure equipment for wireless and wired telecom operators, reported net income of $338 million for the quarter that ended December 31. It lost $264 million in the same quarter a year ago. It was Lucent's second consecutive quarterly profit after reporting net income of $99 million in the previous quarter.

Motorola reported net earnings of $489 million for the just-ended quarter compared to net earnings of $174 million for the same quarter a year ago. It also reported a 17 percent increase in sales from the previous quarter. Both sales and earnings exceeded the company's previous guidance.

Overall, Motorola's sales for 2003 were $27.1 billion, which was slightly less than full-year sales for 2002. However, net earnings for the company were $893 for the year compared with a net loss of $2.5 billion for 2002, the company said in its statement.

Motorola has struggled to keep pace in the mobile phone market and has indicated it may divest itself of its microprocessor business unit. It also recently replaced long-time CEO Chris Galvin with industry veteran Ed Zander."These results provide further evidence that top-line growth has returned and that further improvement in profitability can be achieved," Zander said in a statement.

Lucent struggled when telecom companies started having difficulties several years ago. CEO Patricia Russo said the company was both cautious and optimistic about the future.

"We are clearly seeing evidence that the market is stabilizing," Russo said in a statement. "While we remain cautious, we are encouraged by the recent news we have seen from some of our customers." She was referring to plans by wireless operators to expand their networks with next-generation equipment.

Lucent's overall revenues for the quarter were $2.26 billion, which was a nine percent increase from the same quarter a year ago and an 11 percent increase compared to the previous quarter, the company said.