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

To: wogger who wrote (6293)	2/17/1999 5:36:00 PM
From: William Hunt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21876

THREAD Comments from the sharehoders meeting today --- Lucent Technologies Inc. Dow Jones Newswires -- February 17, 1999 Lucent Shareholders Enthusiastic About Stock Split By Shawn Young WILMINGTON, Del. (Dow Jones)--Shareholders attending Lucent Technologies Inc.'s (LU) annual meeting here Wednesday reacted enthusiastically to the company's plan for a stock split in April. "I plan to buy additional shares," said Joseph Terry, a librarian from Philadelphia, who said the split will help him amass more of the stock before he retires in five years. At a meeting where Chairman and Chief Executive Richard McGinn emphasized the company's growth and high expectations for the future, a proposal to increase the number of authorized shares to 6 billion from 3 billion won 74% of the vote. The Murray Hill, N.J. telecommunications equipment maker, formerly the equipment-making arm of AT&T Corp. (T), is the country's second most widely held stock. Lucent currently has 1.3 billion shares outstanding, with more than 62% held by individual investors. Stock splits help keep shares of blue-chip companies within the reach of smaller investors. Retail investors often view splits as a bullish sign even though they do not have any impact on company finances. Shareholders at the meeting also voted overwhelmingly in favor of reelecting Paul A. Allaire, John A. Young and Henry B. Schacht to the board of directors as they rejected four proposals from investors. The defeated proposals related to staggered terms for directors, executive pay, confidential balloting for shareholders and policies for doing business with China in light of its record on human rights and slave labor. In a question and answer session, investors quizzed McGinn about Lucent's human rights policies overseas, minority and small business policies, and compensation for outside directors. Shareholders interviewed after the session generally said they are very pleased with the company's performance and management. "The company is being run expertly," said Terry. In a meeting with reporters after the shareholder session, McGinn reiterated Lucent's financial projections, which include revenue growth of about 20% and an earnings increase of about 35% for 1999. The company wants to continue to improve margins, but will push for growth, he said. "I would prefer to push for growth over a half-point improvement in margins rather than being someone who would accept lower growth while optimizing the margin," he said. Lucent has repeatedly said it is concentrating on the fastest-growing, most lucrative segments of its market, including software, wireless and data networking. The company also has its sights on efforts by phone and cable companies, most notably AT&T and Tele-Communications Inc. (TCOMA, TCOMB), to combine their services using the cable pipeline. Lucent has equipment for combined services in trial with one large cable company, said Patricia Russo, executive vice president for strategy and corporate operations. She declined to name the company, but said other trials are likely later in the year. "This is a long-term deployment," she said. AT&T has not named any exclusive suppliers, Russo said. In general, exclusive equipment deals are fairly uncommon because there is a risk the customer will be too dependent on one supplier. Lucent Chairman McGinn said the amount of money being spent on combined phone and cable projects is a tiny part of the overall communications equipment market, but "you've got to be there when you've got to be there. "We see this as part of our opportunity," he said. McGinn said the "squeaky wheel" for Lucent and many other companies right now is world economic conditions. "We need Asia to come back up," he said, emphasizing the importance of recovery in Japan. Very little of Lucent's revenue is directly at risk as a result of foreign currency fluctuations, McGinn said, since most of the company's contracts are negotiated in U.S. dollars. BEST WISHES BILL