AT&T; Unveils Spinoff: Lucent Technologies
The biggest corporate spinoff got a name Monday: Lucent Technologies.
AT&T; Corp. chose the name for its $20-billion phone equipment and technology business and set the regulatory process in motion for that operation to become independent in about two months.
In a late-afternoon filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lucent provided no details about the number of shares to be sold or their estimated price.
Its document said the maximum offering price will be $100 million, which would be far below Wall Street expectations of a $3-billion public offering. But a spokeswoman said the $100-million figure was given just to meet requirements for SEC filing fees.
“We fully expect the actual amount of the offering will be larger. And we will expect to specify that in a future amendment,” spokeswoman Jane Moulton said.
The stock offering will be reviewed by the SEC staff. Precise timing for the sale was unclear.
In the document, Lucent said its 1995 revenue was $21.4 billion and its assets $19.72 billion.
It reported an $853-million loss for 1995, related to the AT&T; restructuring, contrasted with a $523-million profit in 1994.
The name Lucent was chosen after employees and a consulting firm suggested hundreds of names, including AGB, short for Alexander Graham Bell, and Western Electric, which was the name of AT&T;’s equipment-manufacturing company before the 1984 breakup of the Bell System.
“Lucent” means shining or giving off light and perhaps is most commonly used as part of of the word “translucent.”
Bell Laboratories, the primary research facility for AT&T;, is the birthplace of the transistor, laser and many other advances in electronics.
Lucent’s headquarters will be at Bell Labs’ main facility in Murray Hill, N.J. In addition to Bell Labs, the new company will include AT&T;’s network systems, business communications systems, consumer products, microelectronics and multimedia ventures divisions.
Lucent will be Wall Street’s largest initial public offering with an estimated value of more than $3 billion, topping the $1.85-billion spinoff of Allstate Corp. by Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 1993.
