FIBER OPTIC COMPANY CUTS JOBS.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Wilcox may refer to: Place names in the United States
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CHATSWORTH Chatsworth, estate, Derbyshire, central England, near Chesterfield. It is the seat of the dukes of Devonshire. Begun in 1552, the present Classical-style Chatsworth House was rebuilt in 1686. - Optical Communication Products Inc., rated a hot-growth company in June June: see month. , announced Monday it is cutting 110 jobs and that third-quarter profits fell 6.2 percent. The layoffs, all manufacturing positions, affect about 25 percent of the work force at the Chatsworth-based company. Optical Communication makes fiber optic components for computer networks. Research and development, also sales and marketing positions, will not be affected, the company said. This sector has been hit hard by the slowing economy. It's the first time that the company founded in 1991 had to cut jobs. ``We didn't anticipate that we would lay people off but the whole downturn Downturn The transition point between a rising, expanding economy to a falling, contracting one. downturn A decline in security prices or economic activity following a period of rising or stable prices or activity. in the optical communications Optical communications The transmission of speech, data, video, and other information by means of the visible and the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. sector has been very sudden,'' said Susie Nemeti, the company's co-founder, chief financial officer and vice president of finance. The layoffs will take place within the current quarter, she said. For the third quarter ended June 30, Optical Communications reported net income of $6.9 million, or 6 cents a share, down from profits of $7.4 million, 7 cents in the year-ago period. During the current quarter the company took a pretax pre·tax adj. Existing before tax deductions: pretax income. pretax adj [profit] → vor (Abzug der) Steuern charge of $5.4 million, 9 cents a share, related to the write-down Write-Down Reducing the book value of an asset because it is overvalued compared to the market value. Notes: This is usually reflected in the company's income statement as an expense, thereby reducing net income. of excess inventory. Revenue for the quarter increased 35.8 percent, to $39.4 million from $29 million for the same period in fiscal 2000. However, revenue fell 17.9 percent from the second quarter, reflecting the changing business climate. ``Despite the challenging market environment of the fiber optic communications sector, we are pleased of the results we have achieved in our third quarter of fiscal 2001,'' company chairman and chief executive officer Muoi Van Tran Van Thai Tran (Trần Thái Văn in Vietnamese, born October 19 1964) is a U.S. politician, currently serving as a Republican member of the California State Assembly, representing portions of Orange County. said in a statement. The company continues to see softness in customer orders, he said. And it lowered its estimated revenue growth this year to 40 percent from 60 percent. In June, BusinessWeek magazine named Optical Communication its top hot-growth company for 2001 on the strength of a 162 percent increase in profits and a 128 percent surge in sales since 1998. Analyst Kevin Slocum at Wit SoundView said the company is dealing with factors outside its control. ``The company has had a wonderful track record,'' he said. ``We've just had a really nasty downturn in the communications marketplace and it has caught up with these guys.'' The company's stock closed Monday at $8.73, up 68 cents. |
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