Tekelec Anticipates 20% 4th-Quarter Revenue Drop

Tekelec, a manufacturer of monitoring and simulation systems for the communications market, said it expects its revenues to drop 20% in its fourth quarter. Based on the $16.3 million Tekelec had in third-quarter revenue, its fourth-quarter revenue would be about $13 million.

The Calabasas-based company, whose fiscal year ends Dec. 31, said it will also take a pretax charge of $2.7 million, partly because technology it purchased in 1990 has not sold as well as it anticipated. The company is also writing off the costs associated with laying off 20% of its staff of 400.

In order to reduce costs by about $2 million per quarter, Tekelec has augmented the layoffs with a salary freeze for most employees, and a 5% executive pay cut.