Lucent offloads dead wood

Portfolios go out the porthole...

Lucent has sold off the bulk of its venture capital business in a bid to shed assets that it does not consider "useful" for technology product development. The telecoms equipment maker has sold 80 per cent of the division, called Lucent New Ventures Group, to UK VC outfit Coller Capital. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it is thought to be worth around $100m. The portfolio being sold off includes 27 companies that were formed around or used technology developed by Lucent or its predecessor, Bell Labs. A spokesman for Lucent said that the move was part of the company's strategy to focus on the top 50 telecoms service providers.