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Agere narrows IPO terms
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February 20, 2001: 12:06 p.m. ET
Lucent spinoff to raise $7B in largest IPO this year; Morgan lead underwriter
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Agere Systems Inc., the microelectronics unit of Lucent Technologies, has further refined the terms of its planned offering in what is expected to be one of the year's largest IPOs.
Agere Systems now plans to sell 370.3 million shares at $16-to-$19 each via Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. On Feb. 7, Agere had filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 370.3 million shares at $15-to-$20 each.
Agere plans to sell 222.6 million shares while the underwriter will offer 147.7 million shares. Agere initially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December.
At the high end, Agere now plans to raise about $7 billion, rather than the $7.4 billion set two weeks ago, which would still make it the largest IPO this year so far and the biggest since AT&T Wireless's (AWE: Research, Estimates) $10.6 billion IPO in April 2000.
Earlier this month, a Lucent spokesman said the Agere IPO was on track to open at the end of March.
 Agere competes with Agilent Technologies Inc. (A: Research, Estimates), Corning Inc. (GLW: Research, Estimates), JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU: Research, Estimates), and Nortel Networks Corp. (NT: Research, Estimates). Following the separation, Agere may also compete against Lucent.
Allentown, Pa.-based Agere makes and designs optoelectronic components for communications networks and integrated circuits for computer equipment. Agere is a leader in the sales of communications semiconductors.
Agere employs 16,500 people and had a loss of $76 million on $4.7 billion revenue in fiscal 2000.
Agere is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Lucent (LU: Research, Estimates) which plans to distribute shares to Lucent stockholders by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Agere plans to trade under the New York Stock Exchange symbol "AGR."
Lucent is currently under investigation by the SEC regarding possible fraudulent accounting practices during its last fiscal year. Agere said it is possible that the result of the investigation could have an impact and could cause its share price to fall, the company said in an SEC filing.
Shares of Lucent dropped 15 cents to $12.52 Tuesday. 
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