Lucent Reportedly in Talks to Buy Chromatis

Lucent Technologies Inc. is in talks to acquire optical networking equipment company Chromatis Networks Inc. for up to $5.7 billion in stock, industry sources said. Lucent, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, also plans to use the Supercomm industry trade show next month as a venue to announce a major contract with a European service provider, said a Lucent executive, who declined to be named. Additional details about the contract were not immediately available. Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent declined to comment, and Herndon, Va.-based Chromatis could not be reached for comment. Chromatis makes optical equipment for cities or metropolitan areas, which has been a weak spot in Lucent’s product mix, analysts said. Chromatis’ Metropolis product allows multi-service traffic--such as voice, data and video--to travel efficiently on optical wavelengths across optical networks in cities.