Lucent Technologies was a multinational telecommunications equipment company that was formed from a divestiture of AT&T Technologies which included Bell Labs and Western Electric. It was divided into core groups such as Network Solutions Group, Lucent Worldwide Services (LWS), and Bell Labs. At one time, it was a ?darling? of the stock investment community, but after a $2.5 billion venture with Royal Philips Electronics (PCC) failed, Lucent struggled financially and even began loaning money to its customers in order to earn interest as an income. Ultimately Lucent ended up spinning off Avaya, Inc. in 2000, and Agere Systems in 2002 then merging with Alcatel in 2006
