Lucent was an American multinational technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs. It was spun off from AT&T on September 30, 1996. Lucent was acquired by Alcatel SA of France on December 1, 2006, forming Alcatel-Lucent. One of the primary reasons AT&T chose to spin off its equipment manufacturing business was to permit it to profit from sales to competing telecommunications providers; these customers had previously shown reluctance to purchase from a direct competitor. Bell Labs brought prestige to the new... company, as well as the revenue from thousands of patents. At the time of its spinoff, Lucent was placed under the leadership of Henry Schacht, who was brought in to oversee its transition from an arm of AT&T into an independent corporation. Richard McGinn succeeded Schacht as CEO in 1997. Lucent became a "darling" stock of the investment community in the late 1990s, rising from a split-adjusted spinoff price of $7.56/share to a high of $84. In 1997, Lucent acquired Milpitas based voice mail market leader Octel Communications Corporation for $2.
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| Founded: | 1996 |
| Founders: | Patricia Russo |
| Headquarters: | Paris, France |