BUSINESS NEWS.(TO THE POINT)

TELECOM GEAR

Alcatel to trim staff, shut plants

The French telecom gear maker, fresh from failed merger talks with Lucent Technologies, will cut 900 U.S. jobs, or 6% of its U.S. staff. It'll also closethree U.S. plants due to tough business conditions in its biggest market. The cuts will occur during the second and third quarters and be finished by the fourth. Alcatel didn't say how much money it expects to save by the moves. The U.S. accounted for 23% of its sales last year.

Lucent case indictment returned

A federal grand jury indicted two former Lucent scientists and a third man of plotting to steal trade secrets from the telecom giant. The FBI says the trio conspired with a Chinese firm to sell a copy of a Lucent product in China.Lucent fired the scientists after their arrest. Hai Lin, 30, and Kai Xu, 33, were on the technical staff. The third man, Yong-Qing Cheng, 37, worked at Village Networks, an optical networking vendor. All three say they are innocent.

Italian cables and tire maker Pirelli denied a report that it had bid for Lucent's fibre-optic unit after failed talks between Lucent and Alcatel.

Research In Motion said BT Cellnet is offering its hand-held Blackberry e-mail device across Britain. That might spur more orders for its product.