Lucent completes Agere spinoff

Agere Systems announced Monday that Lucent Technologies has completed the spinoff of the company. Lucent distributed 945 million Agere shares to about 5 million Lucent shareholders, making the manufacturer of communications components and chips a completely separate company. Lucent offered 600 million shares in March 2001 at $6 a share in Agere's initial public offering, and planned to distributed the remaining shares at a later date. The stock now trades around $3 per share. The Allentown, Pa.-based company's fortunes have diminished along with the rest of the telecom sector, which has been hammered over the past year as carriers reduced spending on equipment. Agere numbers about 11,500 employees, down from 18,500 last year because of deep job cuts.