« The $72 Billion Social-Climber | Main | Department of Strained Metaphors »

There's a saying that you should never "fall in love with a stock." That's true...of course, it's perfectly fine (and highly recommended) to hate some--and that's how I feel about Alcatel-Lucent (ALU). This company manages to lose money at an alarming rate. They just announced a quarterly loss of $3.74 billion.

Alcatel-Lucent's market value has plunged 13.5 billion euros since Alcatel SA bought Lucent Technologies Inc. in December 2006, as the merger and a plan to cut 16,500 jobs failed to compensate for price competition and falling orders. Chief Executive Officer Patricia Russo hasn't said when the company will return to profit.

"There's a large gap between what analysts expected and what Alcatel-Lucent reported," said Frederic Hamm, who helps manage 150 million euros at Agilis Gestion in Paris. "We expected a profit and it was a loss. It's a little worrying."

Posted by edelfenbein at February 8, 2008 11:05 AM