After its initial public offering raised about USD3.6bn in March 2001, Lucent Technologies has finally spun off communications component maker Agere Systems (formerly its Microelectronics Group, with about 11,500 staff). Nearly 5m Lucent shareholders received about 945m shares of Agere common stock. Lucent's board chairman Henry Schacht and CFO Frank D'Amelio have therefore resigned from Agere's board.
The spin-off was delayed nine months by creditors until Lucent returned a quarterly pre-tax profit.
For fiscal Q2 (to end-March), Agere's net loss was USD219m. It plans to sell a wafer fab in Orlando, FL, USA and will close operations in Breinigsville and Reading, PA, and transfer staff to its HQ in Allentown, PA.
- Lucent says fiscal Q3 sales will drop by 10-15% on Q2's USD3.516bn to below USD3bn. This is down on the expected USD3.517bn and their lowest revenue yet.
Lucent foresees its employee base down to near 50,000 by the end of the fiscal year and intends to reach profitability in fiscal 2003.