BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Shares of Alcatel SA fell as much as 6.3 percent on Tuesday after the company¡¯s merger partner Lucent Technologies said Monday its third-quarter revenue and earnings would fall short of market estimates, due mainly to weak sales in North America and China.

    The stock of the French network equipment maker lost as much as 62 cents to 9.16 euros, and traded at 9.30 euros as of 10:28 a.m. in Paris, where the company is based. Before today, the stock had lost 6.6 percent this year.

    Lucent said in a statement that it expects revenue of about $2.04 billion for the quarter that ended June 30, some $330 million short of analysts' expectations. The figure also declines by nearly 13 percent from the same period in 2005 and is almost 5 percent less than this year's second quarter.

    The company also said third-quarter net income would be 2 cents per share, from 4 cents in the second quarter and 7 cents a year earlier.

    Analysts on average expected earnings of 5 cents a share on revenue of $2.33 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

    Late on Monday, Lucent and Alcatel said in a statement that their merger would result in the loss of about 9,000 jobs.

    The statement confirmed earlier suggestions that the deal would lead to workforce reductions. The companies also said they are on track to complete ¡°their merger transaction by the end of calendar year 2006¡±.

    The companies announced in April that Alcatel would acquire Lucent to form a global giant worth about $33 billion, which is the second-biggest telecoms technology group in the world. Enditem

    (Agencies)