Business Briefs: Alcatel to cut 10,000 jobs

Alcatel to cut 10,000 jobs

Alcatel-Lucent announced Tuesday details of a major restructuring plan that includes 10,000 job cuts worldwide over the next two years.

The strategy, which the French-American telecommunications equipment maker presented to its European workers council, is aimed at cutting fixed costs by 15 percent by the end of 2015, an amount currently equivalent to about $1.4 billion.

"All geographic areas where Alcatel-Lucent operates will contribute" to the job cuts, the company said in a statement, including 4,100 positions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; 3,800 in the Asia-Pacific region; and 2,100 in the Americas.

The job cuts work out to nearly 14 percent of the 72,344 worldwide employees Alcatel-Lucent reported at the end of 2012. The layoffs represent the latest job cuts in the telecommunications industry, which has become increasingly competitive as companies vie for orders from the likes of Vodafone and China Mobile as they upgrade their data network infrastructure.

Alcoa cost cuts boost profits

Alcoa swung to a third-quarter profit driven by demand from auto makers and cost-cutting in the face of lower aluminum prices. With the world awash in aluminum, Alcoa has been idling plants to cut smelting capacity by 16 percent. That helped it cut its production costs by 9 percent, more than enough to offset a 7 percent drop in the cash price of the metal on the London market.

Alcoa Inc. said Tuesday that it earned $24 million, or 2 cents per share, in the July-September quarter, compared with a year-ago loss of $143 million, or 13 cents per share.

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