It seems the most analysts would agree with me that the new Lucent Venture Firm was a very good strategic move. Here is an article about what the analysts think. Also, it answered my own question about other companies. Just a name to few that do this are SAP, CSCO, and ADBE.....
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Wednesday February 18, 3:09 pm Eastern Time
Lucent fund to help it gain new technologies
By Jennifer Westhoven
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Lucent Technologies Inc's new venture capital fund could be a nimble way for the telecommunications firm to snare up-and-coming technologies from start-ups, analysts said.
Lucent, spun off in 1996 by AT&T Corp (T - news), will set aside $100 million initially for Lucent Venture Partners Inc, the company said on Wednesday. It will invest in emerging technologies such as data networking, semiconductors and communications software.
''It's a very good strategy, because Lucent can invest in new technologies without having to bring the development in-house,'' said Christopher Thompson, a voice communications principal analyst at DataQuest. ''They can leverage the rapid pace of small companies that might be stifled, or be very expensive to deploy, if they did it in-house,'' Thompson said.
The group could help Lucent shake its lethargic reputation in the entrepreneurial arena.
''Lucent has been quiet and not very aggressive'' in venture capital, said Frank Dzubeck, networking analyst and president of Communications Network Architects Inc.
He expects the fund to act like a similar group at Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO - news), with Lucent buying perhaps five or 10 percent of a start-up company to get in on the ground floor. ''Then, if they like it, they buy the company.''
The fund is likely to stick to second or third-round investments, as opposed to providing seed money, analysts and Lucent said.
Several other high-tech firms already have venture capital groups in place, including Cisco, Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE - news), Intel Corp (INTC - news) and Newbridge Networks Corp (NYSE:NN - news; NNC.TO - news).
Lucent Chairman Henry Schacht will step down to head the unit. The move comes as no surprise to most analysts. Schacht came out of retirement to head up Lucent after AT&T's break-up in 1995. But he was always slated to be a short-term mentor to Rich McGinn, who formally took over Lucent's reins today.
''Schacht has been through this. This is one of those areas where experience is worth a million dollars,'' said Dzubeck.
A Lucent spokesman said ''Henry will be idea and vision, while John will run the day to day.''
John Hanley, an AT&T veteran, will be the managing general partner of the new venture capital group. ''We will invest in early stage companies that either complement or fill gaps in our own efforts,'' he said. A similar venture capital group at Lucent, a ''brainchild'' of Schacht, will remain to scour Lucent internally for ideas and technologies which might be worth forming smaller companies, a Lucent spokesman said.
No board for the new unit has yet been named, but a Lucent spokesman said he expected it would be made up both of Lucent executives as well as outside executives in communications, networking and the venture capital fields.
Lucent also declined to comment on any specific companies it might be eyeing.
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Regards,
Serry Habash |
