Tellabs Inc. plans to lay off 60 employees by April 1 as part of a broader restructuring aimed at refocusing the Naperville-based company on data-based telecommunications equipment.
Those losing their jobs are the last of 300 workers that Tellabs said it would fire as part of restructurings mapped out in July 2009 and January 2010, said George Stenitzer, Tellabs spokesman.
Rob Pullen, Tellabs’ CEO since 2008, is trying to move the telecom equipment-maker away from the giant digital cross-connect switches for traditional telephone networks that propelled the firm to prominence in the 1990s.
With demand for digital cross-connect equipment falling, Tellabs is retooling to focus on Ethernet and Internet Protocol-based packet-switching and other products aimed at speeding data and video over optical and wireless networks.
The makeover reflects a broader shift in the telecom industry, where traditional landline phone service has been eclipsed by cellular calls and services that flow over data networks, like video images, text messaging and Voice over Internet Protocol phone service.
“We’re moving forward with Ethernet and IP, which is what customers need now,” Stenitzer said. “We’re going beyond the former technology of time division multiplexing.”
Tellabs has spent $62.1 million on severance and other restructuring costs since 2008, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this month.
Tellabs earned a net income of $156 million, or $0.41 cents per share in 2010, on $1.6 billion revenue. While that was an improvement from 2009 results, investors have been spooked by Tellab’s weaker than expected fourth-quarter 2010 results and its heavy reliance on AT&T Inc., which accounted for 35 percent of the company’s consolidated revenue in 2010, according to the SEC filing.
Tellabs shares closed at $5.13 Friday, down 4 cents for the trading session, but up from the 52-week low of $4.87 that its stock reached on Tuesday.
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