Tellabs results show rocky fourth quarter

Infrastructure company Tellabs reported that its revenues were down for the fourth quarter but up overall for the full-year 2006. The company’s troubled fourth quarter saw falling revenues in its broadband and transport categories in particular.
“While our fourth-quarter results reflected temporary uncertainty around carrier consolidation in North America, we are hopeful that this will clear soon,” said Krish Prabhu, president and CEO of Tellabs.
Prabhu comments were likely directed at AT&T Inc., which recently completed its acquisition of BellSouth Corp.
Tellabs earned $29 million in the fourth quarter, down 68 percent from the $92 million that it earned during the same period last year. For the year, the company earned $194 million, which was up 10 percent from the full-year earnings for 2005.
In the company’s broadband segment, revenues were down 17 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the previous year’s period, with access revenue in particular down 23 percent. Broadband data revenue was flat.
Full-year revenues, however, were up a modest 4 percent compared with 2005’s fourth quarter. Transport revenues were up 15 percent for the year, but still fell in a fourth-quarter comparison from $175 million in 2005 to $159 million in 2006. Broadband services revenue increased all around, up 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared with the year-ago period, to $47 million, and up 9 percent for the year to $183 million.
Tellabs expects its revenues for the first quarter of 2007 to be flat or slightly down from the fourth quarter of 2006.