Also in today's EMEA roundup: Ericsson talks up growth; Telefónica Deutschland bucks the trend in Q3; Belgium gets LTE in eight cities

Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe

November 6, 2012

2 Min Read
Euronews: AlcaLu Needs to Shed 10,000 More

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) and Telefónica Deutschland GmbH lead the pack in today's hunt for EMEA headlines.

  • Alcatel-Lucent needs to shed around 10,000 more workers if it is to be truly competitive with the likes of Nokia Networks and Ericsson, according to data gathered by Bloomberg. The numbers reveal that AlcaLu's revenue per employee was €49,700 (US$63,600) last quarter, which was at least 14 percent less than its main rivals, while its selling and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales still stood at 16 percent, compared with 11 percent for Ericsson and 10.5 percent for NSN. (See Alcatel-Lucent Sharpens Its Focus and Margin Misery for Alcatel-Lucent.)

  • It's Ericsson's annual Investor Day today in Stockholm, and to help set the scene the vendor is predicting a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 3-5 percent in the global network equipment market from now until 2015, though it believes that growth in its particular segment -- radio, IP and transport, core -- will be slightly higher, at 4-6 percent. (See Ericsson Talks Up Market Growth, Ericsson Feels Networks Squeeze in Q3, Ericsson CTO: Let's Redefine SDN and Ericsson Buys More OSS Smarts .)

  • It's been a surprisingly good third quarter for Telefónica Deutschland, where core operating profits rose 14.1 percent year-on-year in a tough market, reports Reuters. Also on the Telefónica front, the carrier's go-ahead Digital division has launched Instant Servers, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering hooked into data centers in Madrid and London. (See Telefónica Digital Offers IaaS.)

  • Belgium's Belgacom SA (Euronext: BELG) has launched LTE services in eight cities: Hasselt, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Liège, Namur, Mons and Waver. (See Belgacom Launches 4G in Eight Cities and Brussels Sprouts LTE Auction Plans .)

  • Dutch incumbent KPN Telecom NV (NYSE: KPN) is close to agreeing a sale of its German towers to American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT), according to a Bloomberg report. A price tag in the region of €300-400 million ($383-511 million) is expected.

    In other EMEA news:

    • Etisalat Targets Digital Services Market

    • Ericsson Powers TeliaSonera's M2M



    — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Paul Rainford

Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading

Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins.

He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more.

During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels.

Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone.

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