French-American telecoms equipment group Alcatel-Lucent has lowered its forecast for sales in 2008, saying it expects the market to flat-line this year, resulting in a 2% to 5% drop in revenues for the company. In February the equipment maker forecast full-year sales to be flat to slightly up in fiscal 2008, but has revised its forecasts in light of poor Q1 financial results. Alca-Lu posted a net loss of EUR181 million (USD281.9 million) in the three months ended 31 March, compared with a loss of EUR8 million in the same period of 2007. The group said that excluding the impact of purchase price allocation costs of EUR86 million related to its acquisition of Lucent, its group net loss was EUR95 million, compared with a profit of EUR199 million in 2007. Analysts had expected net losses of EUR159 million based on a poll of eleven analysts compiled by Reuters Estimates.

Original Source: TeleGeography CommsUpdate