Tellabs reported Q4 2011 revenue of $317 million, compared with $410 million in the year-ago quarter. There was a GAAP net loss of $5 million or 1 cent per share, compared with a net loss of $11 million or 3 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2010. On a non-GAAP basis, Tellabs recorded net earnings of $4 million or 1 cent per share in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with net earnings of $6 million or 2 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Broadband segment revenue was $166 million, Transport segment revenue was $92 million and Services segment revenue was $59 million. 
Tellabs announced a major restructuring which will see it drop development of its SmartCore 9100 LTE platform, although the company will continue to support its SmartCore 9100 WiMAX products. R&D will be consolidated into fewer location and as a result Tellabs will close facilities in Petaluma (California), Vancouver (Canada), Bangalore (India) and Karachi (Pakistan). The move will eliminate about 530 jobs. Tellabs will incur about $107 million in restructuring charges in Q1 2012.
�?In a climate of economic uncertainty, Tellabs needs to align expenses with revenue,�? said Rob Pullen, Tellabs CEO and president. “Unfortunately, our restructuring will affect about 530 people. We will reduce expense and stop new development work on the Tellabs SmartCore 9100 LTE product, while continuing to support Tellabs SmartCore 9100 WiMax customers. “We’ll address customers’ needs through our next-generation portfolio of products and services for the smart mobile Internet, including Tellabs Mobile Backhaul Solution, Tellabs Packet Optical Solution and
professional services such as Tellabs Insight Analytics Services.�?
Revenue for Q1 is expected to be in a range from $260 million to $290 million.
During Q4, Tellabs saw revenue from 11 new customers for its Packet Optical Solution, including its Optical 7100 and 7300 systems. In the fourth quarter, there was revenue from 2 new customers for the Tellabs Mobile Backhaul Solution, including the Tellabs 8600 and 8800 systems. The company continues to shift to new Tellabs 8609 and Ethernet-optimized mobile backhaul platform for LTE networks. Tellabs now reports two 8600 LTE networks running and LTE trials underway with 3 customers.
At the end of Q4, Tellabs had 3,250 employees compared with about 3,300 employees at the end of 3Q.
Revenue outside of North America grew 27% year-over-year to $636 million in 2011. Tellabs' revenue outside of North America was 49% of overall 2011 revenue, the highest percentage ever.
http://www.tellabs.com
- The Tellabs Smartcore 9100 series is a mobile packet core platform for WiMAX networks. The platform was originally developed by WiChorus, a start-up based in San Jose that Tellabs acquired in 2009 for $165 million in cash. The system provides subscriber management on a per application, per subscriber, per flow basis at line rate. Its functionality included serving as an ASN gateway and Home agent. Clearwire was an early customer.
- In September 2011, Tellabs unveiled a new family of content-aware SmartCore 9200 edge routers featuring a massive 1 terabit per slot capacity for up to 11.2 Tbps per chassis. The new platforms, which build on the Tellabs 8800 MSR series as a carrier-class edge routing platform for IP/MPLS and Ethernet, leverage a "SmartCard" architecture where the service intelligence is placed on each interface card, providing fine grained visibility and DPI-based traffic management on the card, instead of requiring separate Ethernet cards, Mobile Packet Core cards and DPI cards in each chassis.
Tellabs said its goal in developing its next generation edge routers was to enable traffic engineering optimization where application flows can be identified and policies enforced based on the fluctuating loads on the network. A central feature of the platform is the new Tellabs "GeniOS" Operating System, an open system that enables the operator to manage traffic on an application basis. Tellabs "GeniOS" can provide distributed and virtualized capabilities for the Layer 3-7 infrastructure as well as subscriber management and other third-party applications, such as security and malware programs. A single services control layer enables control of IP/Ethernet, Mobile Packet Core, Analytics and PCEF, Video Services and Security. - Tellabs said its new platform uses a combination of merchant silicon and its own programmable logic devices. Telstra is a trial site.
