STOCKS TO WATCH: Copper Mountain, Tellabs and Yahoo

Copper Mountain will be on the decline Thursday after it axed 25 percent of its staff Wednesday and announced the resignations of both its chairman and chief financial officer.

Its shares closed off 9 cents to $4.47 ahead of the news before falling to $3.88 in after-hours trading.

After the bell Wednesday, Copper Mountain told the Street that it would cut 25 percent of its 450-employee staff and take a one-time charge of between $5 million and $7 million in the quarter.

In its prepared release, Copper Mountain executives blamed "continued turbulence" with its core competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) customers and a weak U.S. economy for the cuts.

Most of the workforce reductions will be in sales, customer support, operations and general and administrative support, the company said.

Chairman Joseph Markee and Chief Financial Officer John Creelman both announced their resignations to "pursue other opportunities," leaving Chief Executive Officer Rick Gilbert to pick up the pieces as he assumes the chairman's role.

Michael Staiger, who served as the company's vice president of business development, was promoted to the CFO post.

Tellabs will be on the move after it warned that its first-quarter and fiscal 2001 sales and earnings will fall short of analysts' estimates.

The maker of voice, data and video network equipment said it now expects to record sales of between $830 million and $865 million in the quarter and earnings of between 35 cents and 38 cents a share.

First Call Corp. consensus pegged Tellabs for a profit of 38 cents a share on sales of $876 million.

Company executives blamed the shortfall on slow sales in its Cablespan business as well as its inability to recognize sales from shipments of its Titan 6500 systems.

Its shares added $1.69 to $45.69 ahead of the warning before falling to $40.13 in after-hours trading.

It now expects fiscal 2001 sales of between $4.35 billion to $4.4 billion and earnings of between $2.12 and $2.17 a share, slightly below previous estimates of $4.4 billion and $2.17 a share, respectively.

Separately, Tellabs said it closed the acquisition of Future Networks, a voice and cable modem technology company. Goodwill related to the purchase will dilute earnings by 4 cents a share in 2001 and 5 cents a share in 2002.

Even the top Internet dog has fleas.

Yahoo shares will be on the move Thursday after announcing that CEO Tim Koogle is stepping down and that it will miss analysts' sales and earnings estimates this quarter.

After the bell Wednesday, the Web portal said sales for the first quarter will be revised to $170 million to $180 million. The company also said its pro forma net income will break even.

First Call Corp. consensus pegged Yahoo for a profit of 5 cents a share on sales of $232 million.

Before trading was halted Wednesday afternoon, Yahoo shares were off $1.40 to $20.96. After the bell, the stock fell to $18.

Yahoo blamed the shortfall on the weakening economy and cutbacks in marketing spending among its customers. In addition, the company said its transition from relying on ad revenue from pure Internet companies to traditional businesses was not as quick as it had hoped it would be.