Alcatel-Lucent managed to improve gross margins to 34.7% in the fourth-quarter last year with cost control measures and contribution of sales from its high-margin IP-routing business. Overall, Alcatel-Lucent declared a net profit of Euro 271 million compared to a profit of Euro 134 million a year ago. The company, however recorded a 6% reduction in year-on-year (YoY) sales, posting a total of Euro3.7 billion.
Alcatel-Lucent's Core Networking segment saw a 16% increase in YoY operating margin and a 1% increase in revenue compared to Q4 2013, amounting to Euro 1,8 billion, driven by the growth of the IP-routing segment. For the full year 2014, however, the Core Networking segment revenues dropped by 2% to Euro 5,9 billion compared to 2013 due to IP Platforms legacy, said Alcatel-Lucent.
Access segment revenues were Euro 1,9 billion in Q4 2014, an 11% decrease compared to Q4 2013. Alcatel-Lucent said it continued to diversify its LTE customer base, with 11 new wins in the fourth quarter including AINMT in Scandinavia and expanded its small cell presence, signing 3 new customers, bringing its total to 76.
