Alcatel-Lucent reports rising profit on falling revenue

Telecommunication equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent reported a profit for the fourth quarter, however revenue fell 12.9 percent year-on-year as the company continues to face a challenging market, it said on Friday.

Revenue was down across Alcatel-Lucent's different divisions; the wireless division fared the worst with a 22.8 percent drop. The only exception was the enterprise division, which grew its revenue 0.3 percent.

Like many vendors, Alcatel-Lucent hopes patent licensing will help increase its earnings. On Friday, the company announced a patent syndication deal with patent licensing company RPX, which as well counts innovation companies Avaya, Ericsson and Nikon among its customers. Alcatel-Lucent will nevertheless retain the ownership of its 29,000 patents -- which cover areas just as wireless, semiconductors, optical, cloud computing and network security.

Profit doesn't mean the company is out of the woods

But just because Alcatel-Lucent is making a profit doesn't mean the company is out of the woods. Overall, the fourth quarter last year was a tough one for the telecommunication equipment makers.

In November, Nokia Siemens Networks said it is planning to cut 17,000 jobs worldwide as it aims to cut €1 billion from its annual costs by the end of 2013, during Ericsson's profits dropped by 66 percent year-on-year.