Lucent Cutbacks to Include 8% of Its California Workers

Lucent Technologies Inc.’s plan to pare 10,000 jobs, or 8% of its worldwide work force, formally announced Wednesday, will eliminate about 350 jobs in California.

The cuts amount to about 8% of Lucent’s 4,400-member work force in the Golden State. The troubled technology giant did not specify which facilities would be hardest hit.

Lucent has beefed up its presence in California in recent years through acquisitions, including the 1999 purchase of Alameda-based Ascend Communications and last year’s deal to buy Ortel Corp. in Alhambra.

Its larger California facilities are in Alameda, with 700 employees; Milpitas, 330; Irwindale, 350; Los Angeles, 275; and Alhambra, 200.

Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent said it would take a charge of at least $1.2 billion in its fiscal second-quarter to account for the cuts. The plan will help the company reduce expenses by $2 billion a year by the fourth quarter ending in September.

Those figures were reported Wednesday with earnings for its fiscal first quarter, ended Dec. 31, in which the company lost $395 million, or 12 cents a share. In the same year-earlier period, Lucent posted a profit of $1.25 billion, or 38 cents a share. Sales plunged 28%, to $5.8 billion, from $8 billion a year earlier.

Lucent shares rose 81 cents, to $19.63, on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday.

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Times staff writer Elizabeth Douglass and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.