JDS Uniphase Warns Again

Updated from Oct. 23

JDS Uniphase (JDSU Quote) shares slumped 8% Friday after the company rolled out another wave of disappointing earnings and additional job cuts.

For the fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30, the maker of optical components for communications networks posted a loss of $28 million, or 2 cents a share. A year ago the company lost $521 million, or 37 cents a share. Sales fell to $147 million from $193 million a year earlier.

The revenue number, reported Thursday evening, fell short of Wall Street's consensus estimate, which called for a first-quarter top line of $150 million. JDS also said it would fall short of second-quarter estimates and cut additional jobs. The company has already trimmed its staff by more than 80% from peak levels.

For the fiscal second quarter ending in December, Wall Street expects JDS to lose 2 cents a share on sales of $157 million.

JDS, based in San Jose, Calif., has been hard hit by the communications industry's sharp slowdown of recent years. Spending on new telecom networks has ground almost to a halt, punishing the company's sales of fiber optic gear. JDS has reacted by slashing its workforce in earnest, and this summer the company named new leadership to succeed Josef Straus, the Canadian-transplanted Hungarian emigre who assembled the company in an epic boom-era acquisition spree.

All the company's efforts have failed to reignite its flagging stock, however. Though JDS shares have doubled off their spring lows, they remain more than 95% below their Internet boom-fueled 2000 high.

On Friday, JDS dropped 30 cents to $3.48.