Lucent Issues Fifth Warning

Lucent Technologies shares slid to a new three-year low Thursday after the communications equipment maker said it will post a much bigger loss than expected this quarter, the fifth time this year it has warned of disappointing results.

New chief executive Henry Schacht said he plans to cut $1 billion in operating costs to help return the company to profitability and restore confidence on Wall Street.

But even as Schacht promised that 2001 will be “a rebuilding year, a turnaround year for Lucent,” the company’s stock price slumped 8.5 percent, falling $1.31 per share to $14.19 in Thursday’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

At one point, the stock fell as low as $12.50 per share, down from a peak of $84.18 late last year and only $5 above where Lucent began trading after it was spun off by AT&T through an initial public offering in early 1996.

AT&T is slashing its quarterly payment to shareholders by 83 percent, the first reduction ever for the beleaguered telephone company, and a drastic measure punctuated by yet another warning about weak profits.

Xerox Corp., struggling with slow sales of its copiers and a deflated stock price, warned Thursday that it expects a decline in its fourth-quarter earnings.