Nortel Sees Fourth-Quarter Income in Line With Estimates

Nortel Networks(NT Quote) confirmed its guidance for 2000 and 2001, specifically commenting on its expectations for the fourth quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001.

The company said fourth-quarter earnings from operations will be in the range of 26 cents a share, which is in line with the 33-analyst estimate. Overall, the company is expecting strong growth in optical, wireless and local Internet services, as well as eBusiness solutions. The company projected revenue of $8.5 billion to $8.8 billion for the fourth quarter.

The company continues to expect optical Internet revenue in 2000 to grow more than 125% from last year to more than $10 billion.

For 2001, Nortel expects the overall market to grow in excess of 20%, with first-quarter 2001 earnings in the range of 16 cents, which would be a penny below the current First Call/Thomson Financial 21-analyst estimate. The company projected first-quarter revenue of $8.1 billion to $8.3 billion.

Nortel continues to expect "to grow significantly faster than the market," with anticipated growth in revenue and earnings per share from operations in the 30% to 35% range.