The other 8,000 cuts announced as part of the restructuring will be made by the end of this month, according to a spokesman. The layoffs are separate from today's early retirement offer. They passed on Alcatel because they wanted a merger of equals. They didn't want to be just an acquisition. But that's crazy, because a merger of equals doesn't work.
Someone has to be the boss.
Slaby said Lucent is trying to raise cash by selling its fiber-optic cabling unit and Alcatel would probably get back in the bidding for that division. Lucent, however, isn't in a bargaining position to get the best price. Cutting head count is a way to reduce operating expenses in the short term. Lucent will regret passing up Alcatel's acquisition offer. Find out at a free Windows XP launch event starting 10.25.01.