News In Brief

Confirming reports that appeared last month, troubled Lucent Technologies said it will reduce its payroll by another 15,000 to 20,000 workers in its ongoing struggle to return to profitability. The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company already has cut 19,000 jobs this year, and the latest round means it will have eliminated 32 percent of its workforce. Separately, Lucent announced it will sell manufacturing assets in Oklahoma City and Columbus, Ohio, to Celestica Inc. for up to $650 million. (Story, page 1.)

In other layoff news:

* Twelve thousand jobs will be cut by ABB Ltd., the huge European engineering conglomerate formerly known as Asea Brown Boveri, its chief executive announced. The layoffs are expected to be complete by the end of next year. The joint Swiss-Swedish company is based in Zurich and has clients in more than 100 countries.

* Invensys PLC of London, one of the world's largest specialty engineering companies, said it will cut 2,500 more jobs on top of the 3,200 announced in the first quarter.

* Reuters, the global news and financial reporting service, will cut 1,100 jobs by Dec. 31, 2002, an announcement said. The company is based in London.

Internet retailer Amazon.com struck a deal with America Online to help build a website for 30 million users by late next year. Amazon said the deal is another step toward selling its way of doing business rather than just merchandise. It calls for Amazon to promote AOL Time Warner products in exchange for "multiple payments over multiple years" - $100 million of which already has been received, a spokesman said.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor