The struggling telecommunications manufacturer already announced last week that it would be laying off up to 20,000 of its 87,000 employees worldwide. The company lost $3.25 billion in the third quarter of 2000 due to a sharp decrease in demand.

According to Lucent spokeswoman Mary Ward, the company is interested in leveraging its expertise in most areas of its manufacturing here while maintaining systems integration work, for which 600 to 800 employees would be required. "The expectation is that the contract manufacturer would take over the employees," Ward tells GlobeSt.com. While Ward acknowledges that that is no guarantee, she does point out that these jobs, which are primarily in the optical field, require specialized skills and experience that the employees here have. "That would be attractive to a contract manufacturer," she says.

Ward notes that Lucent intends to keep work in this area but she notes that it is still unclear what would happen to the facility here. Sources tell GlobeSt.com that it is highly unlikely that the company will close the facility, which houses 1,800 non-manufacturing employees. Ward emphasizes that there are a number of options available including selling the facility outright and leasing back space or leasing the manufacturing operations to an outside contractor. Lucent leased its Oklahoma City plant and sold its Columbus, Ohio plant to Toronto-based electronics manufacturer Celestica. Lucent has not yet started to negotiate with contract manufacturers but Ward says that the company hopes to have the transition work done by the end of the year.