TORONTO-After a cycle of postponements, Nortel Networks Ltd. finally released its third-quarter results statement, although it is still unaudited.
For the third quarter, Nortel said it suffered an estimated loss of 6 cents per share on a revenue of about $2.3 billion. The net loss included 3 cents invested in a wireless contract in India and about 2 cents for restructuring charges.
The company previously released unaudited results for the first and second quarters of this year.
Following a trend, the company did not disclose the estimated net loss, although the vendor said its gross margin was $840 million for the third quarter, amounting to about 37 percent of estimated revenue. On a full-year basis, Nortel expects its gross margin to be in the range of 40 percent to 44 percent of revenues.
Its cash balance at the end of the quarter stood at $3.4 billion.
The wireless supplier expects revenues of about $2.8 billion to $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter of this year and between about $10.1 billion and $10.2 billion for the full year of 2004.
“While customer support remains strong, the ongoing restatement activities and the internal restructuring and realignment programs initiated in August have impacted business performance in the third quarter, but this impact is temporary,” said Bill Owens, president and chief executive officer of Nortel.
The company said it will commence filing its financial results Jan 10.
The company has been working on its financial results for 2001, 2002 and 2003 since last year when it discovered inconsistencies in its accounting. As a result, 10 executives and other officers of the company have been removed, regulators have conducted a series of investigations and class action lawsuits were filed.
