Lucent microelectronics group spinoff Agere Systems cut pricing of 600 million shares for sale in its initial public offering to $6 to $7 per share, down from earlier filings to sell for $12 to $14 per share. The pricing change will bring in roughly $4 billion -- far less than the originally expected $6.5 billion. The move in Lucent's latest SEC filing trails its change in plans Wednesday to postpone this week's IPO until next week.

Investors are mainly concerned with Lucent's debt -- which was as high as $8.1 billion at the end of 2000. Leaders of the telecom equipment manufacturing company have taken several steps to turn the company around -- including restructuring and layoffs -- but share prices have failed to rebound significantly. At 11:45 EST, Lucent stock was down 6.6 percent to $10.65.

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