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Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Captain Jack who wrote (4466)	10/2/1998 10:21:00 AM
From: Lucky	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21876

LU is in a freefall.I am short and believe it can only get uglier from here.

To: Captain Jack who wrote (4466)	10/2/1998 10:34:00 AM
From: Jack Kunkle	Respond to of 21876

Headline: Long Rumored To Be Seeking Expansion, Lucent Trims 425 Jobs NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Lucent Technologies Inc., which has long been associated with acquisition rumors, will cut up to 425 jobs at its plant in the Atlanta suburb of Norcross, even as it continues to expand production of fiber-optic cable, Associated Press reported Friday. The company, which employs about 3,000 people in Norcross, Thursday said it will cut as many as 175 management jobs and 250 manufacturing jobs held by Communications Workers of America members. Lucent said the cuts won't be completed until late March. The workers being let go will be offered a package of incentives to either leave voluntarily or take early retirement. They can also apply for other Lucent positions in metro Atlanta and elsewhere in the nation, the telecommunications-equipment giant said. Lucent said it wants to make its operations more efficient and base many of its sales and management people in offices throughout the world that are closer to customers. It said the production jobs, which involve the assembly of cable connecting equipment rather than the manufacturing of cable, will be shifted to a Lucent plant in Omaha, Neb., and other facilities. The plant's main business of making fiber-optic cable is unaffected by the job cuts. Lucent continues to run three shifts a day to make the cable, and is continuing with a $350 million expansion of the plant's production capacity. Frizzell said that work is expected to add at least 50 manufacturing jobs at the plant. The one subject Lucent executives haven't shed much light on is the company's acquisition strategy. Because it was spun off from AT&T Corp. (T), Lucent had been barred from so-called pooling of interest transactions under accounting rules. That meant Lucent faced unfavorable accounting treatment for certain stock-swap takeovers. But that ban expired Thursday, on Lucent's second corporate birthday, prompting much speculation about whether it will go on a buying spree. Experts believe the Murray Hill, N.J., company needs to make a big splash in data networking. Northern Telecom Ltd. recently acquired data-networking company Bay Networks, putting more pressure on Lucent. Yet Lucent has plenty of strengths. The company has firm relationships with the big telephone companies, including former parent AT&T, SBC Communications Inc. and Bell Atlantic Corp. - three carriers leading the consolidations among phone companies. Lucent is able to offer "one-stop shopping," especially to smaller carriers that want a single provider for all their equipment. For the largest carriers, Lucent appears to be well-positioned to integrate and help manage the networks crisscrossing the country. Some big carriers would rather wait for a Lucent product to come on the market than buy from an existing provider. Lucent has been so hot that its biggest problem may be maintaining momentum, analysts say. Since the 1996 spinoff, Lucent's share price has soared, despite a bout of selling this past week. The competitiveness of the industry was underscored last month when Lucent's name came up in the aftermath of the failed merger between Ciena Corp. and Tellabs Inc. Ciena (CIEN) officials had said an unusual, negative electronic-mail message had been sent to Tellabs from a Lucent facility. The e-mail, which Ciena called "a very carefully crafted, sophisticated piece of disinformation disparaging our products," was sent to its intended merger partner on Aug. 28, Ciena alleged. Separately Friday, Lucent announced it will work with Taiwan's Winbond Electronics Corp. to develop so-called flash memory chips that retain their content after the power source is switched off. Lucent also said it agreed to market certain networking products of ACT Networks Inc. (ANET), whose gear allows businesses to implement branch, regional and central site internetworking with a lower cost of ownership. Copyright © 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.