Lucent’s Ills Make Datum CEO ‘Nervous’

The chief executive of Datum Inc., an Irvine maker of time and frequency products, said Tuesday that he is “nervous” about the ongoing turmoil at its biggest customer, troubled Lucent Technologies Inc.

Erik H. van der Kaay, speaking at the Roth Capital Growth Conference in Dana Point, stated his feelings bluntly: “With all of the management turmoil, who is running the ship?”

Van der Kaay has reason to be nervous. Lucent’s business makes up about 30% of Datum’s annual revenue, he said.

Lucent, hurt by weak earnings and a regulatory investigation into its accounting practices, is undergoing a major restructuring and is trying to arrange $6.5 billion in credit. Much of Lucent’s debt has been downgraded by credit agencies.

Last year, Datum reported earnings of 85 cents per diluted share on revenue of $132.2 million. This year, Datum is expected to earn $1.35 a share on revenue of $162.5 million.

Datum makes products that synchronize wireless phone systems, land-line systems and other time and frequency devices for satellites, electric utility operations, missile guidance and geographic mapping.

In his presentation to investors, Van der Kaay said Datum sees market opportunities in a new generation of global positioning satellites to be deployed in coming years as well as in a fleet of spacecraft to be lofted into space by a consortium of European companies.

He also said Datum is set to announce two contracts next month to provide time-stamp servers, an emerging market in which digital signatures are placed on a trail of digital data used to verify information sent in cyberspace. A digital notary service or electronic-mail messages with important legal or financial documents are some examples of how the signature service can be used.