Harmonic crashes on warning

Harmonic (Nasdaq: HLIT) crashed 40 percent Tuesday after the communications equipment provider said it would fall short of analysts' estimates this quarter.

Shares were down 16 1/2 to 24 5/16. C-Cube Microsystems (Nasdaq: CUBE), which owns nearly 45 percent of Harmonic, was down 1 7/8 to 19 3/8.

Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette lowered earnings estimates for 2000 from $1.19 to 95 cents a share, and from $1.57 to $1.30 for 2001.

It's now expecting a profit of between 12 cents to 16 cents a share, far short of the consensus estimate of 29 cents a share.

Including purchase accounting adjustments, the company expects to report a net loss for the quarter of $87 million to $90 million or $1.83 to $1.87 per share. These estimates include 2months of results of operations for the DiviCom business, which it bought from C-Cube Microsystems Inc.

The company said sales will lumber in at $74 million to $82 million mainly because sales to AT&T (NYSE: T) have dried up.

AT&T Broadband accounted for about 40 percent of the company's sales in 1999.

Harmonic's competitors include ADC Telecommunications (Nasdaq: ADCT) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) according to Hoover's Online.

The company will announce actual results on or about July 19.