Financial performance (1) - 17/11/08

Analyst Corner: CSFB lowered its price target on Leap Wireless by 21% to $55. RBC lowered MetroPCS price target by 5% to $19; Barclays lowered its price target on Sprint Nextel by 10% to $10, and McAdams lowered its price target on Clearwire by 24% to $13. RW Baird cut its estimates on Nortel with a 2008 loss of 25 cents rather than loss of 6 cents, and a 2009 loss of $1.4 rather than a profit profit of 20 cents. Oppenheimer cut its Qualcomm' s price target to $45, while Deutsche Bank cut it by 43% to $40.

Nortel reported 3Q08 loss of $3.2bn, vs a profit of $27m, on revenues down 14% to $2.3bn. The Carrier division reported sales of $822m, down 24%, the Enterprise division $616m, down 8%, Global services division $507m, down 6% and Metro Ethernet Networks dropped 12% to $317m. An additional restructuring plan will be unveiled soon, with probably 2500 new layoffs. The situation is serious, and some analysts are even talking of bankruptcy.