Alcatel-Lucent swung to its eighth consecutive quarterly loss in fourth-quarter 2008 as it continued to suffer the effects of the weakening mobile equipment market. Its losses widened to €3.89 billion compared to €2.58 billion in the year earlier quarter as it was forced to write down the value of its assets by a further €3.91 billion. In a statement, chief executive Ben Verwaayen said the write-downs were “made necessary by the drastic deterioration in the world economy… as well as by our decision to concentrate on a reduced product portfolio.” The fourth-quarter losses led to the vendor reporting a €5.215 billion net loss for full year 2008, a 48.5 percent increase in losses over the previous year. Sales in the quarter reached €4.954 billion, down 7.5 percent year-on-year but up 16.9 percent from the third quarter. Sales for the full year came in at €16.984 billion, down 4.5 percent from 2007.

Despite the widening losses, Alcatel-Lucent said it had met its 2008 targets for sales, operating profit and operating margin. “Relatively speaking, given what is happening in the market, Alcatel-Lucent didn’t come out too badly,” Alexandre Paterc of Exane BNP Paribas told Associated Press. The company reiterated its guidance for 2009, predicting that the telecoms equipment and related services market will decline between 8 and 12 percent over the year.