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Agilent shares fell 20 cents to close at $13.60 Agilent's shares rose as much as 10 percent. The net loss in the quarter ended Oct. 31 was $236 million, or 51 cents a share, on severance and acquisition-related costs, compared with net income of $197 million, or 43 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales rose 8.1 percent to $1.74 billion from $1.61 billion. The company has been paring expenses over the past year as sales tumbled amid slack demand for gear used to test telecommunications equipment. The Palo Alto, California-based company, which was spun off from Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2000, is reducing its workforce by 2,500 employees in addition to 8,000 job cuts announced last year, spokeswoman Michele Drake said. The company said in August that it planned to cut more jobs to save $50 million a quarter. Agilent shares rose as high as $15 in extended trading. Their biggest one-day gain in regular trading this year was 11 percent on Feb. 20. The stock, which has declined 52 percent this year, fell 20 cents to $13.60 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading before the announcement. The last time Agilent's sales rose year-over-year was the second quarter of fiscal 2001. Sales in the fourth quarter were expected to be $1.55 billion, the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. Excluding the severance and acquisition-related costs and other items, the company broke even. On that basis, which doesn't comply with generally accepted accounting principles, Agilent was expected to lose 12 cents a share, the average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call. Bloomberg  
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