Alcatel Cuts, Google Networks

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Alcatel-Lucent fires another 4,000

Alcatel-Lucent, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, said it would cut another 4,000 jobs by 2009, following its third straight quarterly loss. (MarketWatch) The company reported a larger-than-forecast $372 million net loss today, blamed in part on a fall in demand for fixed-line network gear tied to the U.S. housing slump. The jobs cuts—amounting to 5 percent of Alcatel-Lucent’s workforce and projected to save $577 million—come on top of 12,500 cuts announced in February. The restructuring could help turn the company around, said Frederic Hamm at Agilis Gestion in Paris, “but it will have to be fast. The margins won’t stop falling.” (Bloomberg)

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Google woos Verizon, targets Facebook

Google is reportedly in advanced talks with Verizon, as well as Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, about selling cellphones powered by Google software. (Los Angeles Times, free registration required) The GPhone could compete with Apple’s iPhone, sold only by AT&T. (MarketWatch) And in a shot at Facebook, Google’s Orkut and fellow social-networking sites LinkedIn, Hi5, and Ning have agreed on a common technology that will allow programmers to write widgets, or small programs, that work on all their sites. Facebook’s rapid growth has been fed by widgets. “This is an open version of what Facebook has done,” said Ning cofounder Marc Andreessen. (BusinessWeek.com)

Deutsche Bank beats the Street

German banking giant Deutsche Bank reported a higher-than-expected $2.34 billion in third-quarter profits, a 31 percent jump from a year earlier. The bank did report $3.1 billion in write-downs and other losses tied to exposure to U.S. subprime mortgages, but more than offset those charges through the sale of its U.S. headquarters and other assets, and a boost from German tax changes. (MarketWatch) Deutsche Bank shares rose 3.6 percent in early trading. (Reuters) “Compared with what banks have been reporting, this is the best I have seen so far,” said Thomas Radinger at Pioneer Investments in Munich. (Bloomberg)