Nortel axes another 7,000 jobs

Whoever said the first cut was the deepest wasn't too familiar with the telecoms market...

Nortel Networks is to axe a further 7,000 jobs as lower spending among US phone companies hits the struggling company's bottom line. The telecoms equipment manufacturer still plans to be profitable by the end of June next year, but needs to cut costs to reach that target. It now thinks it can break even on less than $2.6bn in quarterly revenue. The company previously said that its break-even point would be on revenues of $3.2bn. Nortel will end up employing around 35,000 people following these latest cuts. It had 95,500 staff in December 2000.