Lucent Looks To Its Core StrengthsLucent Looks To Its Core Strengths

Lucent Technologies wants to get back to basics. It's sold 80% of its venture-equity unit, Lucent New Ventures Group, to the London investment management firm Coller Capital. Lucent says it made the deal to focus on core investments in network infrastructure and services.

Lucent retains a 20% limited partnership in the firm, New Venture Partners II. Many of the 27 companies in the portfolio had roots in technology developed by Bell Labs.

A Lucent New Ventures Group team will manage the portfolio, which includes Intrado, a provider of systems for network databases that route 911 calls to public-safety answering points.