5 June 2002 -- After its initial public offering raised about USD3.6bn in March 2001, Lucent Technologies has finally spun off Allentown, PA-based communications component maker Agere Systems (formerly its Microelectronics Group, with about 11,500 staff).

The spin-off had been delayed nine months by creditors until Lucent returned a quarterly pre-tax profit in Q1/2002. Nearly 5m Lucent shareholders received about 945m shares of Agere common stock.

Since Agere sells to competitors of Lucent's, "As a completely independent company, we will sharpen our focus on our target markets and forge deeper, more strategic relationships with our customers," said Agere's president and CEO John Dickson.
Lucent's board chairman Henry Schacht and chief financial officer Frank D'Amelio have resigned from Agere's board.