Lucent Technologies has secured $6.5 billion (€7.15 billion) in new financing to provide the world's largest telecoms equipment maker with extra funds as it tries to restructure its operations and recover from massive losses. The funds might help Lucent avoid having its credit rating slashed to junk status, and provide it with the necessary cash to carry on for the rest of the year even as it posts additional losses, analysts said.

Lucent plans to cut costs, lay off about 10,000 workers, shed non-core businesses, and reorganise to fix operational and managerial problems in 2000 that erased about 77 per cent of its stock value. It employs 700 people in the Republic.